


Beg, Borrow, or Steel

by danilikespandas



Series: Beg, Borrow, or Steel [1]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Groping, Masturbation, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-09-13 05:52:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16886856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danilikespandas/pseuds/danilikespandas
Summary: Nora meets Paladin Danse and is inducted into the Brotherhood of Steel.(First fanfic, be gentle, apologies in advance.)





	1. Heavy Metal

What a boring October week this one had been, thought Nora as she looked out of her office window.

She had been defending some sleazebag Vault-tec floor manager, as he was particularly violent with his male employees, and lewd with the female ones. The only evidence for any of the several suits was a recording of him flying off the handle at one of his female colleagues after spilling coffee on his shirt. He apologized, but not before threatening a string of profanities that could make a serial killer blush. She almost dropped the case after that evidence came in, but to be fair she was not entirely sure he was going to succeed to begin with. Either way, she got paid.

And it kept her mind off of Nate.

Ever since his affair during her pregnancy, she hadn’t quite looked at him the same. She knew he did it because he didn’t want to hurt her or the baby, but she still had hands and a mouth. He didn’t need to have sex with his subordinates. Not like she could do anything about it now. He had offered in a childish last-ditch effort for her to try and sleep with someone “behind his back”, but she knew that would only make things worse. Nate was a very jealous man, which is why he didn’t mind taking Nora away from all of her friends and family in Michigan.

“Less competition in Boston.” She remembered him only half-jokingly saying.

Did she want a divorce? On some days it seemed like that would end all of her problems.   
But with Shaun? No way could she raise the baby by herself. She was hardly home as it was whenever she was taking on a case. Her nanny had recently quit, Nate had apparently confided in her too much and she said it had made the job awkward. Wonderful, she thought. She had Codsworth, but the thought of leaving him alone with Shaun distressed her a bit.

Her intern Theodore walked in suddenly and caught her in her on-edge state.

“Teddy I told you to knock before you come into my goddamn office. What if a client had been in here?”

Theodore had bowed and adjusted his bow tie before continuing. “My apologies, Mr. Davidson was already here today. He doesn’t seem like the kind to make multiple visits.”  
  
Nora adjusted herself upright in her seat. “Are you challenging me Teddy?”

Theodore groaned. “You know I’m not. Please stop calling me Teddy.” They paused before she gave in to her bad mood.

“Oh you know I can’t help it,” She chuckled, “I look at you in your little Oxfords and I see you in diapers.”   
She fondly remembered Theodore’s sister. Truly a beauty unrivaled. Her long, shiny brown curls, her jade green eyes. At her funeral, someone managed to capture the perfection with which she put on her red lipstick. She was like a porcelain doll in the casket. The least she could do for her late best friend was give her baby brother an internship at her law firm when he graduated. The memory made her eyes swell, but she couldn’t dare break the facade in front of Teddy. A single tear rolled down her face, and the motion of wiping it away awoke her to her harsh new reality, the commonwealth.

 

She lied in her mangled home, no longer the beautiful shade of blue her husband had painted it, but now a patchy powdery blue had replaced it. The ceiling was wide open in some spots, allowing dead leaves to accumulate around the decrepit crib that her baby once slept in. His last day here, and she had spent maybe moments of it with him. She cursed her trivial job for wasting precious time she didn’t know was already numbered.   
Even when the Vault-Tec salesman came to the door, she should have slammed it in his face. She could have died with her family, instead of subjecting them to god knows what. Nate had died cold and alone, and it was all her fault. He got false relief when he survived the bombs, but he got a bitter taste of this new world when it came into the vault and killed him.

Nora wasn’t suited for it either. She had only gotten this far on a lot of dumb luck and target practice. Somehow she had managed to take down a deathclaw and twenty or so raiders to rescue the 5 settlers that were inside the museum in Concord. If she had found the deathclaw before she found the settlers, that would have been it. They directed her towards the mini gun she used to take them out.

Fast forward two weeks later, here they all were, gathered in what remained of her old neighborhood. Not like the previous residents could oppose her generosity. She sat up from the bed she had situated in what was previously her bedroom closet. Now it served to be the only spot in her room that wasn’t affected by the gusts that flew in from the broken window. “Sooner or later I’ll have to cover that up.” Nora sighed. Before that, she would need to install a working light in her room.

After sliding back into her bright blue vault suit, she went outside to talk to Preston, who had been sitting on the stoop he had fixed right at the entrance to Sanctuary Hills.

“Morning Mister Garvey!” She shouted to him from about 50 yards to alert him of her presence.

He had about shot her in the foot the last time she just walked up on him. He felt terrible, but she should have known better. In 2077, people had no reason to be on their toes, so it was playful when you snuck up on them. Now it’s just inconsiderate to put them more-so on edge than they already are.

“Good morning, General. You sure are a sight for sore eyes. What time did you end up getting in last night?”

Nora looked at her Pip-Boy before throwing both of her arms up into a stretch. “About 0200, just enough time to get a tight 7 hours in before breakfast.”

“Then whose fancy bracelet was lighting up your room until 5 in the morning?” Sturges interrupted,   
“You know Mama Murphy will make you breakfast whatever damn time you wake up.”

Nora furrowed her brow. “Snitches get stitches, Sturges.”

He laughed, “Good thing you’re the only person here clean enough around here to give anybody stitches.”

Preston walked over and put his hand on Nora’s shoulder. “Sorry to interrupt guys, but we do have another settlement that needs our help. We’ve gotten word from a place called Graygarden. They’d like us to come as soon as possible to help. Would you like me to accompany you?”

Always so polite about ruining Nora’s plans for the day. Her stomach bubbled with disappointment. “No thank you Preston, I’ve got Dogmeat for my danger walk.” He was just asking to be nice at this point, the commonwealth had been hitting him with one bad hand after the next, and he was about finished trying his luck.

After her tarberry jam toast and mirelurk egg, she was off to Graygarden.   
It was a ways away, but she was intrigued by the idea of robots running a settlement. When she got there, one of the supervisors directed her to a water treatment plant to wipe out whatever it was inhabiting it, and then clear the drainages to provide Graygarden with a clean water supply. It sounded like easy money, and she wanted access to their settlement.   
She waltzed over to the plant, and within a few hours she cleaned up the place. It was a good opportunity to see more of the wastes surrounding her old home. She kept the radio on her Pip-Boy on, amused to see that people still took pride in radio after the end of the world.

After leaving and making her way back towards Graygarden, she heard a very distressed woman shouting codes over the radio signal she had picked up on.

“Anyone who can hear this transmission report to Cambridge Police Department for backup.”

Finally, something she understood. Those robots have probably already realized the water supply has been cleared. She snuck past the horrid walking corpses that surrounded what must now be the CPD. Her blood ran cold as she heard several screams ring out from the yard. Caution to the wind, she and Dogmeat rushed the police department, mowing down the ferals hoping to save whatever poor souls lie within. After she cleared a couple more, she could see a wall of a man in armor, blasting the ghouls with his laser rifle- seemingly covering the injured man in the back while she eyed over the woman that must have been the source of the distress call. One man against 50 of these things? She couldn’t leave him here. She didn’t even know if her son was out there to be saved to begin with. The closest thing she had to reassurance was a “psychic” woman’s jet dream. She cocked her shotgun and made a run for it.

Paladin Danse had seen a lot of shitty days in his short life, but this was the shittiest day. He had only been out in the commonwealth a matter of weeks, and he had lost 4 men, was on his way to losing a 5th, and he’d be down to himself and a scribe to defend the station. Death seemed only fair at this point, but how unfortunate it would be to come at the hands of dozens of ferals.  
He thought he was hallucinating from fatigue when a dog and a small woman in a blue jumpsuit and yellow scarf ran into his post and started taking down ghouls like they had been trained to do so. It seemed impossible for such a short and.. admittedly shapely woman to fend for themselves in such a harsh environment, but she had taken down the feral that had gotten behind him, as well as the one her dog was holding onto.   
He focused on taking out the remaining ferals as she ran up the perimeter gate and took out the surrounding ones outside. After the smoke had cleared, he observed her as she descended the steps of the gate. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Her blonde hair tied up into a loose bun, with sultry curls falling out of the sides. Her blue and yellow suit hugged her every curve. He was lucky he was wearing his helmet or she might have seen the way his jaw dropped when she leaned over the railing finishing off the horde.   
He interrupted his own thoughts. This woman was a professional killer, and she just saved his team’s lives. She deserved more respect than being ogled behind a helmet. And if she decides to stick around, he might not be so lucky the next time he catches himself.

“While I thank you for the help,” he started, meeting her halfway across the yard, “what is your business here?”

She looked at him, annoyed. “Answering your distress signal. Your buddy sounded really scared, and I’m not one to leave a lady in a jam.”

She crossed her arms, Danse took note on how slender they were. This was no fighter. If she became unarmed, she would likely be in a lot of trouble.

“Scribe Haylen sent out the signal trying to reach our superiors for backup. Forgive me if I sound suspicious, we’ve had nothing but trouble since coming to the commonwealth. It didn’t really seem like anyone would come to help.”

Nora motioned at herself, “Here I am!”, she said sarcastically. Her yellow scarf fell over her shoulder at the motion.

He wanted to help her, but he also wanted to help himself. “I’ve got a proposition for you if you’d like to continue to help.” Danse said finally.

“I’m listening”, she said.

“We’ve been trying desperately to get our signal to the Brotherhood of Steel, but Haylen’s modifications to the top of the police station just aren’t enough. We need to obtain a deep range transmitter from a nearby facility, but I need help clearing hostiles.”

Nora smiled, “Are you inviting me to a party, big guy?” Danse felt his cheeks go hot again.

“That’s Paladin Danse to you, civilian.” Scribe Haylen jabbed, and continued patching up the injured Knight.

“This mission is no laughing matter, it is life or death. If we misstep those monsters inside will take us out, and the ferals will come and kill what’s left of my team.”

Nora looked up at the two bickering on the steps of the Cambridge Police Department. “Paladin Danse. Nice to meet you, my Name is Nora Klain. How bad is his injury?” She asked.

“Not as bad as it looks if Rhys has the energy to argue.” He reassured her. “Let’s go inside and restock before heading out.”

She turned to the door to find it locked, stupidly realizing that mega man and his buddies probably had the key. He unlocked the door and led her inside. It was similar to how she remembered it, but now it had chests and ammo scattered around, as well as about an inch of grime on each surface. It was secure enough for the time being, but she assumed they didn’t have the time for spring cleaning.

Some synths and a DRT later, they were on their way back to the police station.

“Civilian-” Paladin Danse started.

“-please stop calling me that.” Nora cut him off, raising an eyebrow at him. There was no way the military existed anymore, she thought. The war was over, everybody lost.

“Miss Klain. I’d like it very much if you’d consider joining the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel as an initiate.”

She stopped in her tracks, he a few steps after her. “The Brotherhood of Steel? From the sound of it, I really don’t have much to offer. I was a lawyer, not a soldier.”

Danse had never heard of such a thing. “What’s a lawyer?” He asked to himself before he could halt his curiosity.

“Someone you pay a lot of money to to keep yourself out of jail when you’ve done something illegal.” Nora corrected herself, “Unless you did something really bad, then I just talk to people to give you a less extreme sentence.” The last thing she wanted was to have him think she was helping criminals.

He straightened up. “I think you have plenty to offer. You’ve made it this far on more than just luck.”

She chuckled. If only he knew how lucky she really had been.

  
They arrived at the police station and Scribe Haylen got to work installing the deep range transmitter.

“It’s going to take me a few hours to install, you guys should get some shut-eye while I do that and send the transmission.”

Nora wasn’t going to argue, it had been over 24 hours since she had left Sanctuary, and she could do for a cat nap. Paladin Danse directed her to the “woman’s quarters” which consisted of a cot and a mattress on the floor, the latter of which she assumed was hers. She took off her scarf, and pulled her hair pins out, letting her long blonde hair fall behind her. Later in the evening she awoke to loud whirring and a prominent “thunk” on the top of the building. Nobody told her she was getting in a vertiberd, she was terrified of flying in them. She sat straight up as a gentle knock came on the door.

“Come in", she said nervously.

She hoped it was nobody she hadn’t met yet, as she had been conscious for a whopping 30 seconds and wasn’t exactly an impressive sight at this point. Scribe Haylen opened the door, Paladin Danse behind her.

“Have you considered our offer?” She asked sheepishly.

“I have. I’m in.”

Haylen seemed more excited than Nora thought she would be, especially following their first interaction. She saw the half-smile on Paladin Danse’s face as well, but something else clouded it. Was it worry? Surely he wouldn’t have asked her to join them if he thought she was incapable.

“Outstanding.” Danse interrupted her thoughts. “Have you ever ridden in a vertiberd? That’s how we get to the Prydwen.”

Nora chuckled nervously. “I’m sort of.. afraid of heights, however I had previously assumed I was less afraid of evil robots than I actually am.” She forced another laugh. Was she ever going to get used to this new life? Humor was one way of helping it along.

  
She stepped onto the vertiberd, hands shaking. Dogmeat seemed far less phased by the ride than she was. Had he done this before?   
Each time the mini aircraft rotated, she felt her lunch in her throat. Rhys cocked his head at her, probably internally threatening what would happen if she threw up on him.

When they arrived on the Prydwen, she held onto the grab bar for dear life while she stomped at the floor with one foot to make sure it wouldn’t collapse when she got out onto it. Dogmeat hastily jumped down onto the Prydwen as Nora loathed how stupid he had just made her look.   
Danse wasted no time introducing her to Lancer-Captain Kells.

“Make sure you take her to see Maxson immediately.” Kells emphasized.

“Yes sir, on our way now.” Paladin Danse replied, motioning Nora up the stairs.

Elder Maxson was.. not elderly to Nora’s surprise. He was a young man, with scars and a long beard which were likely meant to throw off his age in this exact way.

“It’s nice to meet a new recruit with such promise.” Maxson started. Surely he hadn’t heard much about her yet?   
“The Paladin wishes you to join our ranks as a Knight. If you are half the soldier he says you are, I’ll gladly grant his request.”

"Thank you for the opportunity, Elder Maxson." She said politely. 

Half the soldier he said she was? Join their ranks as a Knight? She was flattered to hear he had been chalking her up.

“However, I would like to see your performance myself. We’ve had some.. undesirables take hold of Fort Strong. We would appreciate if you could take them out to help us evaluate your skills.” The Paladin looked at him suddenly. “Of course take whoever you think will be helpful in your endeavors, you should know I highly recommend Paladin Danse.”

She looked at Danse, who had his helmet off and was melting a hole in the floor. She was sure that under his hood and all of the grime from the commonwealth, he was probably more normal looking.

“Yes sir, gladly.”

The Paladin broke his gaze from the floor and followed with a “Thank you, sir. Ad victorium.”

“Ad victorium,” Elder Maxson followed, saluting with his fist to his heart.

Paladin Danse lead her to the front of the Prydwen, and laid out his plan to take out Fort Strong quickly and quietly.

“You might want to leave your big metal drum at home then.” She smiled, but he did not look amused.

“My power armor protects me from all enemies, soon you’ll have your own set.” Nora scoffed at his arrogance,

“I have my own power armor, it’s just out of fusion cores.”

Danse continued, “If you’re going to be in the Brotherhood, you’re going to need BOS issued power armor. We probably have a more steady supply of core power than what you're used to.”

Oh well, she thought. Free armor.  
Nora laughed to herself again at the “quickly and quietly” plan Danse had made.   
They were stunned to see so many super mutants outside. They took the opportunity to mow down about half a dozen of them with a mini gun, including a 12 foot tall behemoth. The mutants that remained inside came pouring out, Nora and Paladin Danse taking them down single-file. After clearing about 15 mutants, they took the time to go in and clear out the other 3 mutants remaining. This is what he knew she was capable of. The rank was as good as hers, his mind wandering to what she might accomplish for the Brotherhood.

“Incredible, I expected nothing less.” Maxson gave a toothy smile as the two saluted upon their return. “Knight, you’ve been assigned to your sponsor, Paladin Danse’s team. You’ll find your armor in the repair bay. Welcome to the Brotherhood of Steel, Ad victorium.”

Sponsor? She thought. “Ad victorium, sir.” They saluted and left to pick up her power armor.

“This is Proctor Ingram.” Paladin Danse said, motioning to a redhead who was obviously using her power armor as some sort of clever prosthetic.

“Pleasure to meet you, Proctor Ingram.”

She looked up from her clipboard. “I already repaired your suit, no need to brown nose.”

Nora was taken back. “Okay then.. which one is mine?”

Proctor Ingram stomped over to bay 3 and started tinkering with the lock on the power armor station. “This one is yours. Already fit for a lady, but a bigger one. It’s gonna need to be adjusted for size before you can wear it.”

Paladin Danse interrupted, “I can help her with it. I’ve got nowhere to be for the rest of the day.”

Ingram shot him a glance. “No modifications before it’s fitted. Make sure you adjust the shoulder plates with the helmet on, if not her neck will be exposed. Oh, and leave my wrench wherever the hell you found it.”

Nora eyed the suit. “Am I supposed to be in it when it’s adjusted?”

Ingram pinched her eyebrows together. “No you’re supposed to be watching TV in the lounge, yes you’re supposed to be in the goddamn armor when it’s being adjusted. Keep that suit on too, it’ll stop the plates from pinching you when they come together.”

Nora did her best to not make a face at the rude woman. She turned the wheel on the back of the armor, and it made a hissing noise when it opened up. The armor she stole from the museum of freedom didn’t do that. She climbed up inside, followed by Danse going, “Don’t close it.”

Okay, she thought. “How am I supposed to hold myself in here?” The Paladin had already grabbed the emergency straps to secure her to the front of the suit.

“Straps, don’t move.” She heard hissing as he must have exited his own suit.

The first one was at the small of her back. She was only holding onto the inside of the suit by the handles, and he had grabbed her by the sides of her waist and pushed her a little further into the armor so that he could strap her down properly. Nora hiccupped a gasp as she felt his firm hands nearly encircle her as he pushed her inside and tied both ends of the strap behind her.

Ingram lingered nearby. She wanted to keep an eye on the two. Paladin Danse didn’t stick his neck out for anybody, and while this lady was a looker, she had previously doubted that the model soldier would drop his hard attitude for nothing more than a pretty face and a decent figure. It would have been tough to call him on any foul moves, if that was his motivation. She almost made her way over there after watching the Paladin yank vehemently on the emergency straps, constricting the Knight against her suit.

Danse held his breath for a moment. He hooked the end of the strap under the left thigh plate in her armor, and shortened the strap before hooking the other end up under her rear, and on the other plate between her legs. “This would be easier if you were wearing your flight suit.” He backed away before saying.

“Is the view distracting?” She teased.

“Have you seen our flight suits, soldier?”

The only one she had really seen up close and personal was the one on Rhys, but he wasn’t much of a spectacle to behold. She glanced around the repair bay. Tight.. orange suits.. everywhere. He watched her tense up at the thought of changing out of her regular blue jumpsuit.  
She figured it couldn’t be much worse that what she had already been sporting. She had picked up the yellow scarf to try and cover the way her boobs jiggled when she did, well anything. The world had to end on a day where she was wearing a basically useless bra. Her blue work polo was getting a bit too snug on her, so she opted for a simpler bra that would fit more readily inside of it. Under the cardigan she wore for work, nobody would have been the wiser. In a not-so flattering jumpsuit, it’s a very different story. On top of that, she could barely find bras her size before the bombs fell, let alone after.

A few more straps and clips in choice places and she was firmly secured to the front of the suit.

“I hope you don’t have to go to the bathroom.” Danse began tightening a gear that shortened the foot plate to fit her boot perfectly.

“Am I supposed to give you a heads up since you’re down there?” The tight strap along her kidneys was likely going to be problematic eventually.

“Just don’t wait until it’s an emergency. I need a couple minutes to get you out as well.” He laughed.

That was the first time she had heard him do it. A deep chuckle that gave her the first pro of being strapped upright to a chunk of metal, because her knees surely would have buckled in any other circumstance.   
It had been awhile since she had been in such close contact with a man, her and Nate weren’t exactly on loving terms all the time after Shaun was born.   
She felt her face get hot as Danse grabbed the back of her thigh and adjusted the knee joint. How was she supposed to maintain her composure while some Brotherhood gladiator had his hands all up and down her backside? In fact, he volunteered to do it, she thought perversely.

  
Dogmeat had been patiently waiting for her to finish whatever it was she was doing. She watched him sit anxiously in front of her, waiting for attackers or come what may. It was all she could do to not squirm and appear more unprofessional than usual in front of her sponsor and commanding officer.

Suddenly a gorgeous man walked in front of her visor.

“What do you think? Does it need any more adjustments?” Paladin Danse’s voice came out of his mouth.

She was stunned. She had never imagined what hair would do to his visage, and man was she glad she had never done such a foolish thing, because she would have been wrong. He.. was still massive outside of his power armor. At least 6’5”. His flight suit displayed muscles that she thought only existed on super mutants. His jet black hair was combed back out of his eyes, revealing piercing oak brown orbs. His eyebrows were pushed downwards into a serious look, complete with the small smile of self-contentment he had on his face. Even in her day, he would have been a lady killer.

Oh no, she panicked. It had been far too long since he’d asked the question. She faked a yawn the best she could.

“Sorry I must have dozed off. What was that you asked?”

He furrowed his handsome brow at her, “Would you like me to make any more adjustments to your power armor? Perhaps not if it’s comfortable enough to sleep in.”

She waited a moment before answering to make him think she had thought it over. “No thank you, it’s perfect. Thank you very much Paladin.”

He began unstrapping her, starting with her arms. “It was my pleasure. Don’t forget to hold on.”

She gasped as he reached between her thighs to unhook one of the leg straps. “My apologies, they’re much harder to unclasp than to clasp.” He took a more careful approach unhooking the other leg.

Danse was just releasing the final strap as he stepped forward to catch her. “I told you to hold on.” He said, awkwardly holding his Knight.

“Sorry, I hadn’t realized my legs had fallen asleep.”

Proctor Ingram cleared her voice in their direction, and they scrambled to a standing position. “Kids,” she groaned to herself.

“I can show you to your quarters.” Danse said, motioning towards the main deck.

Her “quarters” were similar to the one back at the police station, an open area where she was assigned to book with other women. The arrangement made her uncomfortable. The Paladin then directed her towards the cafeteria, although dinner had long since passed. The initiate working the evening shift was nice enough to heat them up leftovers on a hot plate. After they had finished eating, Danse said he was heading to the showers before turning in for the night.

“Showers?” Nora asked excitedly. She hadn’t had a decent shower since before she was frozen.

“Don’t get your hopes up, they’re cold half the time.”

She winced at the thought of an icy shower. “There aren’t like cameras or anything in there, right?”

The Paladin gave her a funny look. “I sincerely doubt that we lack heated water and have cameras in our showers.”

That was reassuring, actually. After they arrived at the locker rooms, the two had split up and gone to their respective places. Nora was more than relieved to find herself to be alone in the locker room. She unzipped her vault suit and stripped it from her shoulders, pulling it down her arms as they glistened with sweat. She removed her undergarments and braced herself as she entered the icy shower.

Arthur Maxson pressed his head to the wall. For eavesdropping purposes, he had drilled tiny holes in several walls of the Prydwen. To him, nothing meant too safe. However his desire to listen in on his Paladin and new Knight was less than.. precautionary. He had doubted Danse would ever in a million years bring in someone he thought would harm the Brotherhood.   
She did not seem dangerous. She did, however, seem capable of compromising his most accomplished Paladin, and this was worth investigation to him.   
Maxson was curious about what Danse desired in this situation. He watched the vault-dweller as she disrobed and stepped into the water. He turned down the hot water valve, hoping to see her swear at the frigid water. She did let out a quiet shout as it touched her skin. Arthur was frozen. She was infatuating, even under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the locker room. Her breasts perked up the second the cold water had touched her, causing his breath to catch in his throat. The elder had only hoped that he had gotten to witness this sight before Danse himself did.   
His hand was down his pants before he had time to contemplate what would happen if someone discovered his dirty scheme. His cock throbbed at the sight of her body as she washed her hair. His eyes followed the soap as it dripped over her perfect ass, between her legs, and past her small, feminine feet. He watched as she peeked out of the shower curtain. Was she looking for Danse? Or could she by chance hear the man furiously masturbating at her pale, cold figure behind the shower wall? She turned back shrugging, and started to wash the rest of her body with her hands.   
“Yes. Yes.” Maxson roared quietly to himself.   
She picked up the shower head and bent over to rinse the area between her legs. The way she had bent over made him imagine the plethora of filthy things he wanted to do to her, watching longingly as she washed her glory hole. She went over it one more time with her slippery hands and Arthur came hard against the wall.

This was some of the most fun he had had since deciding to keep a more personal eye on his.. subordinates.

Nora toweled off and eyed the orange flight suit.   
At least she would smell nicer in a clean change of clothes. Surely she didn’t want to stick out by her bright blue jumpsuit and her horrid scent. She shimmied into the neon ensemble and looked in the crude mirror in the locker room. It sure was.. snug. At the very least, it was more supportive on her chest with how restrictive it was in the area. She turned around and eyed how much wider the suit made her hips look.

“Orange is not my color”, she said aloud to herself, tying her blonde locks back behind her head into a messy wet bun.

By the time she had finished with her shower, she assumed Danse would be long gone. She walked out to see him talking to two of his colleagues, clad in orange of course. Slightly less of a surprise this time, with a clean face he could easily pass for pre-war. Even with the long scar that interrupted his right brow and cascaded halfway down his cheek, he was devilishly charming. Did he sound more intelligent because of his shocking new appearance? Or did he talk to her like a simpleton because he thought she was one?

She stopped herself immediately. Nora hadn’t been self-conscious about what others thought of her since waking up. Her only thoughts had been avenging her husband and finding her son. It was not a feeling she missed. She took the realization as an invitation to make her way out to the women’s quarters.

“Knight Klain.” She stopped dead in her tracks, and turned to see Paladin Danse politely motioning her over.

“My apologies for stopping you. Meet Paladin Caldwell and Knight Alexander, it would be wise to familiarize yourself with as many people as possible. In the future there is a possibility of you being sent on missions with teams other than your own, and not everyone comes back. Take the opportunity to meet some new people before you turn in. Also, it might be worth mentioning that you can leave Dogmeat in my quarters at bedtime.”

She walked over to the two men, arms crossed. It was freezing on the airship. “It’s nice to meet you both. Sorry for the brief introduction, but it’s very cold in here. Yes Paladin, I appreciate your generosity. He’s still hanging out in the repair bay, I'll bring him up to you shortly. Goodnight gentlemen.” She bowed before she turned and made her way down the steps onto the main deck.

"You're gonna let her go in your room?" Alexander jabbed when she was out of earshot.

"Of course he's gonna let her in. The real question is whether or not he plans on letting her out!" Paladin Caldwell chimed in, giving Danse a playful elbow.

"It's just her dog staying with me, and I'm not that lonely. At least you two have each other, right?" He prodded back, smugly.

Caldwell put an arm around Danse, and he could smell the strong scent of vodka on his breath. "Sure, _tonight_ you gotta babysit the dog, maybe tomorrow she'll let you play with her cat, too." The other two threw their heads back and roared with laughter.

Danse groaned at the lowering tone of the conversation. "And on that note, goodnight gentlemen."

Nora said goodbye to Dogmeat as Danse hoisted him up the ladder to his room. She wasn't thrilled about keeping him with Danse, but it would have worried her even more to send him back to Sanctuary.

She made it all the way back down to the women's quarters and found her cot. Some women went as far as to sleep with their shoes on.

“Nothing like radioactive dog shit to make your bed comfy.” She said under her breath.

She folded her vault suit and neatly put it in the storage container at the end of her cot. She pulled her hair down from its bun and stuck the pins in her scarf for safe keeping, before also putting it in the storage container. She unlaced her boots, and put them on top of the green bin. To be honest, she was still impressed with the state of the bed she was given, and it was indeed comfortable- for a cot. She pulled the green blanket up to her neck before checking on her settlements and going to bed.


	2. Trouble in Haymarket Mall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora continues her journey as a newfound Brotherhood Knight, and Danse inadvertenly puts her in a sticky situation with some raiders. *TRIGGER WARNING*
> 
> Also, thank you for the constructive ctriticism on the last chapter, let me know if there's anything else I can do to fix things ^_^

Nora opened her eyes, not surprised that it had been sweltering hot on the Prydwen.  
Built for security, not comfort, she reminded herself. She shot up the moment she realized that every bed around her was empty and made. She stood up and stretched before crawling to the end of her cot, and paused when she noticed her boots were on the floor. She picked up her Pip-Boy and checked the time. Twelve thirty, fantastic.  
She put her boots on, meticulously lacing them tightly as she didn’t want to further anger the healing blister on the back of her heel. She opened the storage container to find her vault suit and scarf gone, a flight jacket in its place. Had Danse.. seen her sleeping? Or did someone else replace her things? Nevertheless, her top priority was recovering them.

She walked down to the repair bay, not at all surprised to find Danse in the first place she looked, Dogmeat at his side.  
“Was I supposed to be up at a specific time? Also my stuff is missing.”  
“Knight!” She heard Proctor Ingram shouting, making a beeline towards her. “Any hair over shoulder length is to be kept up and out of the way!” She rolled her eyes before turning.  
“My apologies Proctor Ingram, I had hair pins, but I put them in the scarf I was wearing yesterday. When I woke up this morning it was gone.”  
Proctor Ingram put a hand on her hip before saying, “That’s fine Knight. There are rubber bands and bobby pins for sale at the shop. Keep in mind that this will be your only warning.”  
Paladin Danse stood and faced Nora before she could continue. “I had your vault suit and scarf washed. I figured you would want them as a backup if something happened to your flight suit. I uh.. probably lost the pins that were in the scarf. I can compensate you for new ones, however.”

Proctor Ingram was long gone before Danse had finished taking the blame for Nora, as if she really cared. She just didn’t want to be the one pulling long blonde hair out of the joints of Knight Klain’s armor.  
“As for waking up late, nobody woke you because you don’t have a post to be at. We’ll be leaving whenever you’re finished at the depot and grab lunch.” She cringed again at how late she woke up.  
“Where are we going?” She asked innocently.  
“As your sponsor, it is my duty to travel with you throughout the commonwealth to make sure our ideals are being observed.” Cute, she thought, a babysitter. “Do you have any suggestions, soldier?”  
Nora grabbed her chin. “I do need to go to Diamond City.”  
Danse sat back down, continuing to work on whatever trinket was in his hand. “Excellent. That is on our list of places to try and mingle with the civilians to get more information.”  
Nora looked at the floor. “I’m glad we’re going for the same thing, then.”  
The Paladin lost interest in his project. “What are you trying to investigate in Diamond City?” He asked.  
She paused, because she didn’t want to give him the wrong answer. “I need to find the Institute.” Danse stopped completely. He wondered if he even could help her. Of course her enemy is the only one that the Brotherhood couldn’t fucking find.  
“Do you have any information yet?” He asked, making his way over to Proctor Teagan.  
She hoped the lead she had was better than she had given it credit for. “I’m looking for a detective there. The woman who pointed me in his direction was sure he could help.”  
Nora bought pins from the Depot, rolling her hair into its typical ballerina bun. Danse could have watched her fix her hair all day, although he only watched her reflection in the puddle on the floor.

On the way out they stopped in the mess hall and quickly ate their rations. “We need to stop at my quarters.” Danse said. Nora was curious what living arrangements were like if you were too important to sleep in the same room as every woman on the ship. Danse opened the door to his room, and it was mostly empty, save for some simple furniture. On top of that, there were about a dozen cans of dog food. Where had he obtained so much dog food on short notice?  
He handed her a neatly folded stack of her clothes. “Thank you.” She shoved the jumpsuit into her bag and wrapped the scarf around her neck twice, partially covering the lower portion of her face. As she suspected, the bobby pins she put in the hem were long gone.  
“Is there anything else you may need before our departure?” Danse asked, securing the strap for his own bag.  
“Save for a bathroom break, I think that’ll be it. Will anybody else be joining us?”  
The two looked at each other. “I’m giving Rhys some time to recover from his injuries. Scribe Haylen on the other hand, has several weeks of work ahead of her with everything we brought back from the reconnaissance.” So team Gladius was down to 2, plus a dog.  
Nora sighed internally as Paladin Danse strapped the hood onto his flight suit and stepped back into the safety of his power armor. She climbed into her own set and braced herself as it hissed behind her. They climbed into the vertiberd and made their way down to the airport helipad. Even if Nora did manage to fall out of the vertiberd, she would’ve been spared from injury by her power armor, which helped ease her nerves considerably.

“I missed being on the ground.” She said once they were out of earshot of their pilot.  
Nobody said anything as they made their way through the airport, only getting the customary “Ad victorium, soldiers” on their way out of the gates.  
Nora didn’t want to admit it, but she was at least a little excited to be traveling alone with Danse, and after a while he made the call to remove their helmets to make communicating easier and preserve a small amount of core power. He kept the conversation interesting by talking about his life in the Capital Wasteland, how the Brotherhood of Steel defeated the Enclave, and whatever else popped into his head at that very second that he thought she wanted to hear.  
She wished that she lived a life worth telling stories about. Her dad was in the military, and her mother was a homemaker. She got perfect grades, played several instruments, and went to college while half of the planet was fighting for resources. She doubted even more so that he was interested in hearing about her previous job or home life.  
“Have you always lived in the commonwealth?” He asked, interrupting her self-pity.  
She had avoided the topic to put off talking about it as long as possible. “Well.. not always,” She hesitated. “But you can say that I’ve lived here for quite a while.”  
Danse looked up, clearly expecting her to elaborate.  
“I’ve been here for 215 years. Before that I lived in Michigan for 20 years.” She realized how insignificant the latter statement sounded.  
“Very funny.” He snapped.  
“I was cryogenically frozen when the bombs fell. The whole vault malfunctioned and killed the other inhabitants. My husband survived, but I believe he was murdered by the Institute, and they kidnapped my baby. It happened right in front of me, and I was helpless to stop it.”

Danse wasn’t sure whether to feel more sorry for her, or himself for being such an idiot. Everything did make a little bit more sense than they previously had. For the life of him he couldn’t figure what this enchanting woman could be doing on her own. Of course she was already married, he never imagined that anyone could have been half as beautiful as she was, even before the war. Thanks to the greed and folly of man, she had her family ripped away from her, forced to fend for herself in this nightmare world. He didn’t want to imagine what anybody in this reality would want with an infant.  
“Look I know it’s hard to believe but-“  
“Missus Klain then, is it? I’m sorry for not properly addressing you yesterday.” Danse cut her off. Not that he could really say he had heard weirder, but it was the only explanation that made sense.  
“It’s alright. Thank you.” She said quietly.  
Maybe the modern military was different from the one in her time, after all. He made several faces to process all the information he was given, and Nora wondered if he was aware of how attractive he was. She looked idly into his soft brown eyes as he focused sternly on the path ahead of them. Underneath his hood he had a thick black mane that was a bit overgrown, at least to Brotherhood standards. She imagined his thick, muscular neck and tried to speculate what he could look like under his tight jumpsuit, nothing but a silhouette to guide her thoughts.

They both stopped in their tracks when they spotted a man up ahead, between themselves and the bridge if they wanted to take the dry route to Diamond City.  
“You’ve got to pay to pass.” The raider said. “A hundred caps, cough up.”  
“Excuse me?” Nora said, “I don’t have 100 caps, and if I did I wouldn’t give them up to scum like you.” Danse was caught off guard at her trash talking.  
“Okay lady, it’s your funeral.” Sneered the raider, readying his pipe pistol. The Paladin barely gave him time to finish the sentence before firing a laser between where his head and body connected. He looked over to see that Nora had just raised her gun high enough to take aim.

“That was foolish. He already had his gun out, and you could’ve gotten yourself killed talking like that instead of acting.” His scolding took her by surprise.  
“I had it handled, Paladin. Do you want to be giving our caps away to every thug that crosses our path?”  
He scowled. “No! I want you to be armed and prepared for every dangerous thug that crosses our path, so that you don’t get us both killed! Put your helmet back on, Knight, that’s an order.” She shrunk as he yelled in her direction. He was breathing heavily as he turned his back on her and continued walking, making the journey in silence until sunset.  
“We should find a place to turn in.” Danse finally spoke. They found a building under an overpass disconnected from the structures around it, with intact windows on the second floor. Knight Klain climbed out of her power armor so she wouldn’t risk the wooden stairs collapsing under her weight. Upstairs, she removed a can of dog food from Danse’s bag for Dogmeat when they heard gunshots.

“We should secure the perimeter before we turn in.” Nora said, clearing her voice to hide that the noise had disturbed her.  
“Affirmative.” Danse said quickly. As she reached back into his bag for a bowl, he reached inside of it as well and grabbed her wrist tightly, securing her one hand with a handcuff. Before she could pull back, he clapped the other end to the water pipe she was situated next to with a loud ringing noise.  
“What the fuck Danse?” She finally managed to get out after staring at her wrist. “That’s my trigger hand!”  
Danse kneeled down to face her. “I stand by what I said earlier. I don’t know why you’re acting like this, but your recklessness is going to get us both killed. I’ll secure this place, and then I’ll secure the perimeter by myself. I can handle raiders.” He stood up, laser rifle at the ready. “Give me thirty minutes. I’m sorry.”  
He closed the door, and she heard him locking it behind him. She watched the clock on her Pip-Boy. Ten minutes passed, then twenty. She felt relief roll over her as she heard the door unlocking. The door opened, and she was surprised to see nobody on the other side of it. Bitter realization hit as she heard fast footsteps and felt a quick, sharp pain on the top of her head as her vision went dark.

She fell into a fantastic dream. Nora was back in the ice cream shop she worked in when she was a teenager. She was propped up on one of the retro tables in her mini dress, with Danse between her legs, whispering sweet nothings in her ear as he traced his hand up and down the front of her clean, white panties. He used his other hand to slowly unbutton the top of her dress, pulling her tits out when he had gotten about halfway down. He firmly grabbed the small of her back and began sucking on her nipples as he ground his massive erection up against her.  
He was being so sweet and tender. How was she supposed to stay mad at him at this rate? Why was she?  
Pleasure melted into dread as she recalled the events following up to this moment.

 She broke into reality to find two raiders on her, one grinding his hips on her through her suit, the other zipping it down completely and licking all over her very red bust. Her right hand was no longer cuffed to the pipe next to her, but now both were chained to the pipe above her head. She screamed as she squirmed in their hands.  
“Oh look, she likes it!” The man grinding her hips said, licking his lips. “Anyone ever tell you not to dress like you want it? ‘Cause man am I glad if they didn’t.” He grabbed either side of her zipper, pulling hard and ripping it to the point where she was exposed from her navel to her ass. He began tracing his tongue up her thigh, and gently caressed the entranceway of her labia.

Danse ran towards her screams as quickly as possible, skipping three steps at a time in hopes that he wasn’t too late. He entered the room and froze, eyes locking on Nora while she tossed and struggled in opposition. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, questioning his self-control at the sensuous scene before him. The raiders had pulled her hair free of its bun, and her bouncy blonde locks were falling each which way over her torso. Her breasts were levitating from the way she hung gracefully from the metal pipe, and she glowed a bright pink in the moonlight; her legs were held wide open, revealing every inch of the inviting slit between them.

In the next moment, a majority of the moonlight in the room had disappeared. A loud snap between Nora’s legs and her shaking had stopped. Danse was standing there, laser pistol to her other attacker’s forehead. Within an instant he collapsed into a pile of vapor on the floor.  
Dead silence fell over the room again as Danse quickly turned his back.

“Paladin. Please let me out of here.” He turned once more, wishing he could melt this bittersweet image to his memory, and somehow make things right.  
Her breathing was heavy, and her still-red chest bounced with each heave. She tried pulling her legs together, but the height of her knees only gave him a better view of her plump rear and pussy as she shivered and squirmed. It was at this point when he became aware of the painful erection he had, no longer in the safety of his power armor.

“Danse.” She said, quieter this time. “Please let me go.”  
He snapped out of his trance, and put his leg to the wall, both hands on each end of the pipe. He heaved hard and the pipe came out of the wall, showering Nora with water. She gasped as he put one arm under her ass and another behind her back, lifting her up so that she could release herself by the break in the line. She pulled off of the pipe and fell onto her sleeping bag, coughing as she hit the ground. Danse handed her his own sleeping bag while she rummaged through her bag for her vault suit. He turned while she stripped out of her Brotherhood flight suit, listening to the fabric rip further as she stretched it off of her thighs.  
When he turned back around she was wearing her suit and scarf, and already climbing into her sleeping bag to fall asleep, but Danse knew he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight.


	3. Spoils of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora and Danse make it to Diamond City and spend a night in Home Plate.  
> *Minor plotline spoilers*  
> Can't imagine you'd be here before that point, but I don't judge!

In what felt like a few short hours, dawn came. Paladin Danse lightly shook Nora awake, telling her that they had to keep moving to get to Diamond City.

“What happened to my turn on watch?” She asked.

“You needed to rest. We have a long journey.” They packed up and made their way out of Haymarket Mall, heading southwest for Diamond City.

When they finally arrived at the remains of Fenway Park, they found themselves locked out by the giant green gate. Nora exited her power armor and made her way over to a distressed young woman yelling at an intercom. The woman spotted her, and stopped mid-scream to introduce herself.

“Hey there Blue, I’m Piper, Piper Wright. You’re a trader, right? Got lots of supplies to sell to the General Store, right?” She motioned to the intercom, and Nora got her drift.

“Oh, you bet I do.” She said, sarcastically.

Piper cupped her hands over her mouth, “Do you hear that, Danny Sullivan? You better open the gate and let these guys in!” She turned back to them and flashed a wink. After playing along and getting inside, Mayor McDonough directed her towards the detectives office.

“Detective Valentine?” Nora asked, stepping into the office.

“I wish, but you’re a bit late, hun. Nick has been missing since investigating a missing citizen a couple weeks ago.”

Nora felt everything stop, hoping that she hadn’t reached the end of the line already.

“Where was he investigating?”

The woman who stood in front of her stopped going through files and turned around. “Park Street Station. Some troublemaking rich girl Darla went missing around those parts, and he suspected the thugs in the vault underneath it had something to do with it. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away.”

Nora took a step in her direction. “I don’t have that option. This man could be the last hope I have of finding my son.” Danse heard the hitch in her voice. She had come so far for him, what a shame for it to be in vain. “I’ll go find him. You have my word.”

The woman in the pink skirt collapsed in tears. “Oh thank you! You have no idea how reassuring it is to have one person willing to help. My name is Ellie.”

“Make that two.” Danse chimed in.

They made their way out of the city, towards the subway station that the woman had directed them to. They cleared out all signs of life inside to find a robotic man, to their surprise.

“Are you.. Detective Valentine?” Nora asked, hesitantly.

“That I am, hope the mug didn’t give you too much of a scare. Thanks for your help, friend, but how on earth did you find me?”

She put a hand on her hip. “You’ve got a very worried young lady at home who was asking for help. I needed some help as well from you, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Nick shook his head as he took his fedora off. “Poor Ellie is probably a wreck. I’ll be glad to help if I can, what can I do you for?”

Nora straightened her posture and gave him a more serious look. “My baby was kidnapped. He’s less than a year old.”  
“I’m very sorry to hear that. It’s a sick world we live in. Let’s go back to my office and talk about this some more.” The synthetic man said. They headed towards the city, and discussed the details before agreeing on the conclusion that the Institute was likely responsible for the kidnapping. Nick mentioned a man who lived in the city previously with a child, and with Dogmeat’s help, Nora followed his virtually invisible lead to Fort Hagen.

She cornered the man named Kellogg, and her mind fired with rage when she recognized the monster who had killed her husband and stolen her child. Danse stood by as she carried out her vengeance, wailing on him in anguish with the bayonet from her rifle after emptying her clip into his corpse. She kneeled down and cursed him, before picking up his revolver and firing the remaining five bullets into his chest. Finally satisfied, she pulled a piece of technology from his mangled skull, unsure of it was of use to her.

On the way back to the surface of the fort, Danse struggled to make his way up yet another flight of stairs. His aching empty stomach nagged him, while fatigue had him shaking his head periodically just to maintain consciousness. He peaked over the platform, and a wave of heat rushed over him as he blacked out and went crashing down the stairs.

Nora pulled him from his power armor and dragged him to the nearest bunk bed. He had horrific circles under his eyes, and his breathing was uneven and labored. She covered him with a blanket and removed his boots, placing a cool rag on his forehead while he slept.

When he finally awoke, she was sound asleep in the bunk next to his, vault suit partially unzipped and hair everywhere. She must have used the time he was out to clean the bits of blood and brain matter out of her face and hair, much to his relief. He took a moment to admire her rows of flawless white teeth and the way that the bed curved around her petite supple figure.  
He slid his hand inside of the slit in his suit that was normally used for ease of access, and pulled his half-stiff dick free of his suit while he still could. He closed his eyes and imagined her rolling her hips on top of him, taking his length in its entirety. That got him hard immediately. He exhaled through his nose, as he began pumping his cock rhythmically, picturing her breasts bouncing with each thrust. He felt dirty masturbating so close to her, but he had little energy, and considerably less control given the circumstances of their trip thus far.

He was a soldier, but he was still human, and temptation can only ride someone so far.

Within minutes he already felt the sticky precum gathering at the tip of his dick, not that he was complaining. The sooner he came, the less likely he was to deal with her waking up at the wrong time.

“Oh god..” Nora groaned lightly in her sleep.

Danse tensed up immediately, clenching his teeth and checking to see if she had awoken. He was safe.

A few minutes later she reeled up again with, “Oh Paladin Danse..”

He couldn’t hold back at that, as he covered the inside of the blanket on top of him with cum, and quickly pushed it over the side of the bed to hide the evidence, exposing himself momentarily. He pulled the blanket down from the bunk above him to replace the one he had tarnished. Danse signed a heavy sigh of relief before rolling over and falling asleep.  
  
After Nora woke up the next morning, she sat on what little edge of the bed that Paladin Danse didn’t occupy, lightly brushing her fingers down his arm to wake him. “Don’t scare me like that, you need to start sleeping every time we stop, not dropping wherever the hell you fall.”

With her hand still on his bicep, he rolled over, groaning. “I’ll get sleep the next time I find it necessary. That’s a promise, Knight.”  
He didn’t anticipate the gentle, doting demeanor she was giving him. He also didn’t plan on letting her know how much he enjoyed it.

She stood up from where she was sitting on his bed. “It better be. I’ll sedate you if I have to.”

Danse rolled his eyes. “Where is my armor?” He asked sluggishly, keeping his green blanket firmly over himself.

“It’s out on the stairs. Still face-down from where I pulled you out of it.” Danse didn’t remember collapsing. He remembered their encounter with Kellogg, followed by a foggy memory of his activities in the barracks. He was sore in a couple places, namely his shoulder and ribs.

“I’m sorry that you had to carry me up the stairs, I can’t imagine it was very easy for you.”

Nora turned back, a half-glare in her eyes. “I handled it fine, big guy. We can’t all be herculean, my body still thinks I had a baby eleven months ago.”

Danse raised his voice. “I wasn’t commenting on your size, I was commenting on my own.”

She was still upset that his apology had seemingly been tagged with an insult, but she opted to take it. “Apology accepted. You are very heavy.”

She turned her head back to whatever she was doing, rummaging in the boxes and dressers between the beds. Danse used the opportunity to slip out so that she wouldn’t notice the morning wood he had woken up with.

Nora followed him out into the stairwell after she heard his armor hiss shut. Danse pushed himself to a standing position, noting his fusion core at 20%.

“You in a rush to get out of here? You still have a fever.”

He turned to face her “I’m in a rush to find our next lead. We need to find the Institute, and your son.” She took the medical supplies she was picking through and left the jet canister that remained inside. The Paladin lead back to the command center, opening her armor for her and motioning for her to get inside. What a gentleman, she scoffed to herself.

When they finally made it back to DC, they rushed to Valentine’s office.

“Easy there, calvary.” Nick joked. “Did you find Kellogg?”

Nora emerged from her power armor. “We did, and we put an end to that monster.”

Nick hung his head solemnly. “That mean no boy?”

The tears stung Nora’s cheeks as they began to stream down her face. “No sign of Shaun.”

Paladin Danse shifted in his place. It was the first time she had said her son’s name since they had met. A missing nameless child brought less pain to his heart.

The sight before him was touching, until the detective moved to comfort the woman standing in front of him.

“Don’t you touch her, synth!” He barked harshly before he could even realize what he had said.

“Danse..” She turned, insulted by the words.

He took a defensive stance. “These things tried to kill us at both ArcJet and Fort Hagen. What makes you think this one is any different?”

Nick backed away from Nora to try and begin a negotiation attempt with Danse.

“You’re absolutely right. I am one of those monsters, but I’m not the same as them. I have free will, memories that drive me to be a model citizen.”

Nora cut him off. “And he’s the only shot we have at finding my son, Danse. Please be mature about this.” Nick nodded his head at her, thanking her for taking his side.

“Very well, I’ll be outside.” Paladin Danse said, closing the door behind him.

 

When Nora came back out, she told him that their next destination was Goodneighbor. Danse thought that they were heading out of the city, but Nora instead made her way to the Mayor’s office.

“Where are we going?” He asked as they ascended in the elevator.

“I’ll need a place to stay here when I come back. Valentine told me to come here and find a lease to take over.”

Danse looked at her. “How often do you plan on coming back?” He asked.

“Well, whenever I need to speak with Mister Valentine. I know we’ll be back here when we return from Goodneighbor, so who knows how many times we’ll be back.”

He didn’t like the idea of getting comfortable there. Nora stepped out onto the platform that led inside of the Mayor’s office. She stopped at the desk, a pretty young woman sitting at it and reading a book.

“I’m afraid the Mayor isn’t hearing any of this synth business. I’ve got a lease available if that’s what you’re here for.”

Nora clapped her hands before pointing at her, an odd gesture, Danse thought.

“That is exactly what I’m here for.” Nora smiled.

The energy made the secretary look up from her book. “Well it’s just outside the market, the previous owner bought out a warehouse next door and knocked the wall down, so it’s bigger than most. Two thousand caps, and she’s yours.”

Danse’s voice caught in his throat at the price.

“Done.” Nora said quickly, handing the secretary the caps she had taken from her mercenary friend. She quietly thanked the corpse in the basement of Fort Hagen for her new home.

“Okay then.” The secretary choked out. “My name’s Geneva, and allow me to be the first to welcome you to the great Green Jewel!” She said, handing her the keys. They made their way down to the market, looking for the tell-tale red door that they were told to find.

“Here is is!” Nora said, sticking her key in the door. They walked inside, Danse ducking through the doorway.  
“What do you think?” She asked, hand still on the doorknob.

“I think.. that you and this place have a lot in common.”

Nora whipped her head at what she thought was an insult. The place was trashed. Half the floor was missing, and there was a mystery fog in what she assumed was the warehouse portion of her new home.

Danse caught her glare and cleared his throat. “Let me rephrase that. You and this house have a lot of great potential, and even though it may be a lot of hard work, through perseverance I believe the two of you are likely to be the best.”

Danse stepped out of his armor, and Nora turned to him, surprised. “Inside for a matter of seconds and you’re of your power armor? Are you going soft on me Paladin?”

This time she actually got to see him laugh. He had thick, pouty lips that pulled up into a quaint smile. What she wouldn’t do to kiss that face, among other things.

“This city is one of the most secure settlements in the commonwealth. On top of that, I don’t have much of a choice in the matter anyway. My fusion core is at 3%.”

Nora was shocked at his underpreparedness. “You’re telling me that Paladin Danse doesn’t carry extra fusion cores?”

He tossed her the empty one. “I have 2 spares, I needed to step out to change it anyhow. Regardless, no point in wasting them in a place like this. I’ll be going to the vendors shortly to stock up, would you care to join me?”

She smirked. “Eggs, milk, fusion cores. Anything else you need from the market, honey?”

He tried to ignore her flirting. He didn’t know how to, and he already had a vague idea of their boundaries as it was. She saw his face flash a light shade of pink before he threw his backpack over his shoulder and made his way out the door.

She followed him out of the doorway and were met with about half a dozen stares.

“What are they looking at?” Nora asked.

“The only people in the city in colorful jumpsuits.” Danse replied.

“Take your hood off so they’ll stare at you instead.” She jabbed him with her elbow.

“I’ll take off my hood when you take off the scarf.” She pulled the fabric down insecurely to cover herself, while Danse tried to hide his smirk.

After stocking up at Arturo’s, the two made their way to Takahashi’s stop for noodles, Danse removing his hood so that he could eat.

“Don’t worry, you can keep the scarf on.” He smiled.

“Oh I planned on it, for now at least.” Nora rebutted, tossing Dogmeat the bits of ham that she didn’t have an appetite for. “What I wouldn’t do for a warm bath.” She said, staring into her noodle cup.

“There was a tub in the messier part of the house. I could move it to a more private area if you’d prefer.” Danse offered.

She swirled the cup in her hand before saying, “I can’t imagine anywhere in that house is very private.” She was right. Short of carrying the tub up the ladder, the best they could do was to put it around one of the corners and just stay on opposite sides of the house.

"Buying me dinner and doing housework, I can't remember the last time someone was so nice to me, let alone my boss. Am I being fired?"

He handed the cup back to Takahashi, promptly dropping it on the ground. "Call it a last minute housewarming gift." 

They got back to Home Plate, and Danse dragged the bathtub under the stairs, debating on whether or not the drain in the floor was of any use. Nora scrubbed out the old ceramic tub before heating up water to fill it with, and Danse watched with curiosity as she dumped soap in alongside the water she was pouring. It foamed up at the surface and nearly bubbled over as she filled the basin with more and more water.

She looked back to see him, eyes wide with wonder. “Have you never seen a bubble bath before?” Nora asked him, lightheartedly.

He shook his head before answering, “I’ve only seen one kind of water with foam on top, and it’s not the type you bathe in.” He shuddered internally.

“Would you like me to do it to your bath? It’s kind of a waste of soap, but it always makes me feel better.”

A bubble floated out and popped on the floor in front of him. “My bath?” He said, without thinking.

“Do you not plan on taking one?” She asked, giving him a look.

“No, no I will.” Danse answered, quickly. He watched her on her knees as she poured the last bucket of water into the tub.

“Can I have a minute, please?” Nora turned away, removing her scarf.

“Absolutely.” Danse replied, walking around the corner and taking a seat in the bright red chair in the warehouse.

He sat for a moment before becoming bothered by the odd fog that hung about the room, and stood back up to search for the source of it. He propped open a window and started moving junk to the dingy trunk off to the side.

Nora had stripped off her vault suit and slunk into the bathtub, feeling the grime fall off of her as she sank. Since she wasn’t under a freezing shower, she took her time washing her body. She slipped a finger inside herself, not shocked at how wet she was.

“Too risky.” She whispered to herself, pulling it out.

She was surprised when after she washed her hair, Dogmeat politely handed her a towel. Maybe he wasn’t such a dumb mutt after all. She climbed out and toweled off before shimmying back into her vault suit. She crossed her fingers as she pulled the plug on the bathtub, praying that the drainage pipe it was over wouldn’t clog. She wiped down the tub and quickly began filling it again with hot water.

She turned the corner. “Your turn, big guy.” Her mouth fell open when her eyes landed on Danse jotting report in his makeshift bed, the warehouse now tidy and virtually fog free.

“So you are capable of cleaning up. Back at the police station you guys had me worried.” Nora said, towel drying her hair before hanging the cloth to dry on a nail over the stairs. 

“At the police department I was far more concerned about ferals.”

“And what are you most concerned about now, _Paladin?”_

He nearly snapped the pencil in his hand at the vivid images flashing through his mind. She was still making blatant advances at him, and it would be unprofessional at best for him to acknowledge them.   
He turned to face her and felt his gaze shoot up to her face when he had realized she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Without answering, he walked past her, unzipping his flight suit. Nora covered her eyes with her hand and took his place in the red chair.  
Dogmeat followed her over, and suddenly she had a wicked smile make its way across her face. She walked over to her bag and unzipped it, pulling out a portion of her ruined flight suit.

“Can you get this for me boy?” He sat up excitedly, waltzing to the other side of the house. He quickly returned, Danse’s neatly folded flight suit in his mouth. Either he hadn’t noticed, or was too shocked to say anything, the latter she sincerely doubted.  
She took a seat back in the vermillion chair in the center of the room, crossing her legs over one arm of the chair, and lazily draping her arm over the back of it while she posed coquettishly and watched the minutes pass on her Pip-Boy. She was almost suspicious of how long it took him to realize.

 “Nora!” He eventually barked at her. “Where is my flight suit?”

She was already blushing at her evil genius.

“Come and get it.” She purred back sweetly.

Danse felt every hair on his body stand up at the words. Another wave of horror took him as he saw that even the towel she had left him was left hanging on the edge of the stairwell, between both halves. The only thing he could use to cover himself was the hood of his suit. In his awkward pose, he began his short journey. He walked over to the towel, garment in hand. He only had time to pick it up and hold it in front of himself when he turned to face her and his blood turned to ice.

There Nora was, in _his_ jumpsuit, zipped down as far as it would go.

“I guess I picked the right nickname, huh big guy?” She said with a wink. He couldn’t find the right words. Actually he couldn’t find any words at all. He stood there, towel in front of his junk, marveling at her wet curls falling over her chest and shoulders, and her pink nipples peeking out of each side of the zipper.

The first words he could think to say were, “Uh, um, can I have my suit back, please?”

She watched as he turned a different shade of red. God, she thought. She adored his physique, and swooned at the way that his wet, messy hair sat on his head. He was really on a different level, and for the first time she felt in over her head. Nevertheless, she stood up and walked over to him, before putting a hand behind his back and repeating herself into his ear, “Come and get it.” Danse could feel all self-control fleeing as he dropped the towel and grabbed Nora’s waist.

She thought he was going to kiss her, but he pulled her in and confidently fixed his lips on her neck, beckoning a soft giggle from Nora as his beard tickled her skin. Danse put his free hand on the nape of her neck before grabbing the collar and slipping the suit down her back. He pecked and sucked on her neck vigorously, before releasing his grip on the back of his suit and sweeping her legs from under her, placing her on the stairs while he quickly pulled her the rest of the way out of it.

When she was finally bare in front of him, he paused. She knew he was weighing the possibilities. They could both be in a lot of trouble if they were somehow caught fraternizing. Should he stop and maybe stay at the inn for the night?

No way in hell. Suddenly all consequences seemed worthwhile if he had free reign of her for a single night. He lifted her up by her legs, grinding her against himself, and slammed into her against the stairs. She gasped as he traced his tongue from the base of her neck to the back of her ear. Regardless of how large he seemed, it was still hard for Nora to believe how strong he was. She doubted she could have changed her mind if she wanted to, but changing her mind was the farthest thing from it.

They had too many close calls in Fort Hagen, and Nora would be damned if she never took part in her own spoils of war. She was pleased, however with how little coaxing Danse required to really indulge himself. She had only hoped he was as desperate as she was to pounce, and he came willingly. He lifted her knees over his shoulders and began tenderly kissing her from her navel and downwards. She held on for dear life to the handrail above her, the other hand wound tightly in Danse’s thick, black hair as he began to lick between her thighs, her soft moans filling the room.

When she was a shaking mess, he slid his arms in the gaps between her and the stairs, and tossed her playfully over his shoulder. He carried her up to her bed and laid her down gently, climbing on top of her. She looked at the holotags dangling from his celestial neck as he hesitated once more.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked through his teeth.

She bit her lip and smiled.

“Yes, sir.”

He took the invitation to tease the tip of his cock around the entrance to her orifice, before gently forcing himself inside her. While he was working himself deeper, a pathetic whine-like groan escaped her throat. He stopped to see if he was hurting her, and she looked him in the eye as she began working her hips in a circular motion, gliding herself up and down on his dick. He inhaled sharply as he hooked one hand behind her back, the other under her leg, and began pumping away. She was so fucking wet, he still had trouble believing that this woman was really underneath him. That _she_ had seduced _him_. His state of disbelief almost made him forget to stop when he was close to climax, and he pulled out momentarily.

“You’re not done yet, are you?” She purred again.

“No baby, I’m just really close and need to stop.” He murmured in her ear

She loved hearing him call her “baby” in his deep, sexy voice, but honestly in this state she would’ve settled for whatever the hell he wanted to call her. He watched her breasts lift and fall with each breath. Her legs wide open, waiting for him. He leaned down between them and kissed her on her soft lips. She propped herself up on her elbows to return the gesture, Danse tangling his fingers through her long hair.

Within no time, she pulled him into her position, straddling his lap while they passionately kissed each other all over. She leaned forward to kiss his ear, and as she came back down she eased his throbbing cock inside of her. Nora gasped as she rocked up and down, Danse grabbing her hips to level her and intensify the thrust.

“I hope you’re not too bummed that I put out on the first date.” She teased.  
He chuckled, and she boiled with lust at the sound of his voice, combined with the sensory overload of her far more acclimated commanding officer surely on the verge of combustion beneath her.  
“This is at least our third date, I suppose I should have been more clear.” He looked up at her for some kind of indicator in her mien.  
“Well then, I hope you forgive me for setting you on fire on our first date.” She tousled his wet hair, before leaning down and giving him a small kiss on his thick, scarred lips.

He shook his head. “Is that supposed to be worse than putting out on the first date?”

She laughed. “I'd assume most men wouldn't have.. survived this far, but if you'd call that easy.."

 

He could tell that she was close, she was breathing heavier than ever and began to slow her pace. He held her hips in place and began to thrust upwards as quick and hard as he could. She screamed in pleasure as she watched a rainbow of emotion flash over his face.

“Should I-”

“Don’t you fucking dare pull out!” She interrupted him. Her back arched as he groaned loudly and emptied himself into her. She lifted herself off of him, cum slowly trickling down her thigh, before falling facedown next to him on the mattress.

 

Danse regained his sanity, and he lifted an arm to run his fingers through her hair, gently brushing the digits down her back. He lightly tugged a strand at the end, and Nora watched his eyes as they dragged all the way up her figure to meet her gaze. 

He still couldn’t believe that she would want anything to do with someone like him. She had her reservations about joining the Brotherhood of Steel, but Danse was sure that she was just as happy as he was for her to reconsider, if not for the Brotherhood, for their own sakes. Elder Maxson would protect her, and Nora was sure to bring him glory. Her eyes closed, and Danse sulked at her. He felt victorious, but also as if this conquest was ill-begotten. Would she be dismissed if they were discovered? Whatever the consequences, they certainly wouldn’t be good.

Nevertheless, he allowed himself to enjoy this moment of bliss as he thanked himself for being persistent, and pulled her into his arms before drifting off to sleep.


	4. Sea Dogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora and Paladin Danse go to Goodneighbor, and Nick Valentine sends them MacCready's way before they all head off into the Glowing Sea.  
> (Followed by shenanigans and other fun stuff, enjoy!)

When Danse woke up, Nora was already up and rearranging the place.

  
“I thought we were going to Goodneighbor in the morning?” He asked groggily.

“We are, I just didn’t want to wake you.” She hopped on the side of the bed.

“I packed both of our bags, so I’ll be ready to leave whenever you are.”

 

He looked at her, with sadness in his eyes. “Nora.. listen to me.”

She looked away, hoping he wouldn’t reject her after what had happened, and he sighed. “I.. I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you in Haymarket Mall.”

Nora reached out and put her hand on his knee, “You did protect me, you killed those assholes before things got bad.”

He closed his eyes. “I don't know what you think bad is.. but that looked terrible to me.”

She looked away, unsure of where this was going.

Danse paused before continuing. “If the Brotherhood even suspects anything unprofessional between us, it’s grounds to have you relocated to another team. I don't want that, I want to help you find your son.”

She sighed in response. “I figured as much. Did you request for me to be assigned to your team because you weren’t interested in me?”

 

"I wanted you on my team because.. you saved my life and I owed you a recommendation at the very least." 

"And what does that have to do with you insisting on me joining the Brotherhood of Steel, and then requesting me to join your team before I had met any of the other crew?" She demanded. 

He started to say something, but changed his mind. “I requested for you to be assigned to my team because I couldn’t live with the thought of some other Brotherhood dog eyeing you down day in and day out. But now I’m not sure that was the right decision. At the time, I considered myself strong-willed. Proudly so, in fact. Following my failure at Haymarket Mall, I’ve never desired attention so much in my entire life, and I’m disgusted with the manner of it. I should be able to accompany you and not proposition you in any way.”

He signed before gesticulating with his hands to find the words that escaped him.  
“I just.. wanted to say that if your desires were situational, I wouldn’t be offended. In fact that would likely be the best case scenario for both of us.”

Nora tried not to sound hurt. “And if they weren’t?” She whispered.

He scratched his head, “And if they weren’t.. Nora.. don’t do this..”   
  
She stood up and nodded her head, before heading downstairs and quietly pretending her heart hadn't been ripped in two.

 

Within the hour they were on their way to Goodneighbor.

From what they knew, it wasn’t too far, however there were supposedly several obstacles between them and their destination. They trudged through super mutants just to be nearly taken down by a pack of hungry dogs outside the gates. Once inside, some thug came up to Nora, and she gave him a push right into an angry ghoul mayor.  
The ghoul, Hancock, shivved the guy for hustling both him and his visitors. Even tossed a treat to Dogmeat.  
For a disgusting freak, he could be worse, thought Danse.

They met their synth detective acquaintance inside of the Memory Den, before talking Doctor Amari into a very questionable procedure that could’ve left Nick and Nora vegetated. However, it got them the information they needed. Those who travel to and from the institute do so by teleportation, and there was a rogue scientist in the Glowing Sea who may be able to get the technology they need.

“The Glowing Sea?” Nick asked. “You’re going to need an extra gun. I know someone who might be able to help you out for some caps. He usually hangs out over in The Third Rail.”

Danse turned to him before saying “We’ve got all the gun-power we need for free.”

Nora nudged him with her elbow. “We’ll check the guy out, then determine whether or not we need him, okay?”

  
He rolled his eyes before they made their way into the basement of The Third Rail.

 

Nora’s eyes fell on a man in the VIP, music roaring as he fixed his gaze on her. He sat slumped back in the chair he was in, glass lingering in front of his lips as they made eye contact.

Nora broke his gaze and turned to Nick. “Who exactly are we looking for in here?”

He turned his head back in the direction she was looking. “Looks like you already found him. Leave it to you to walk into a room and make friends with the most dangerous person in it.”

Nora chuckled. “Let’s pretend that’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

 

Robert Joseph MacCready kept eyeing the two that Nick Valentine escorted into the VIP section as they made their way over to him. He wondered if his Diamond City pal would ever take him up on his offer for referrals to his clients, especially those who had the caps for a helping hand.  
The pair piqued his curiosity. A vault-dweller and a power-armor clad giant? What could they need from him?

 

“MacCready. I’d like you to meet my friends, Nora and Danse. They’ve got another friend that they’re looking for-” Valentine started.

RJ interrupted, “And you need help rounding up a sleepover? I hope that’s worth my fee, Mister Valentine.”

Nora answered instead. “My ‘friend’ is an escaped Institute scientist. We’re going to the Glowing Sea to find him, and I’ve got a hazmat suit with your name on it. That sound _worth your fee?”_

He leaned forward in his chair. “For 250 caps doll face, I’ll be there with bells on.”

The man in the power armor stepped forward, laser rifle in hand, and the vault-dweller held her arm out.

MacCready chuckled. “So does that mean that asking for his arrangement instead is out of the question?” He said, rubbing his neck.

It was then that Nick Valentine noticed the hickey peeking out from the top of her scarf. “And I thought I was the detective here. Regardless MacCready, you don’t need to go insulting my friends when they’re asking for your help.”

The vault-dweller turned to walk away. “We don’t need his help.”

RJ scoffed at the rejection, “Now wait just a minute here, you’re telling me you don’t need my help to take out the deathclaws, radscorpions, and ghouls that the Glowing Sea are swarming with? Okay then, your loss. Loss of life that is. Two-hundred caps, take it or leave it.”

Nick glanced at her in time to catch her momentary smirk.

“One hundred fifty. And maybe I’ll let you keep the hazmat suit.” Danse whipped his head in her direction, still surprised that she would offer that much.

“Deal.” He stood from his chair, and they shook on it.

“Robert Joseph MacCready at your service.”

 

The trio turned from the dirty mercenary and made their way to the door. MacCready followed behind them, slinging his assault rifle over his shoulder. He tipped his hat to Magnolia and Whitechapel Charlie on his way up the stairs.

“So this is goodbye for now, huh kid?” Valentine turned to Nora.

“Not for long, Nick. I don’t plan on getting comfy out in that radiated wasteland. And would you mind watching Dogmeat for me? All his stuff is at Home Plate.”

The detective whistled at Dogmeat before they walked off together. She pulled a hazmat suit from her bag, handing it to MacCready.

“Ahem, let me slip into something more rad resistant.” He joked, forcing it into the bag on his hip.

“Do you only speak in sarcasm?” She asked.

“I can talk dirty to you too, but that costs extra.” He laughed.

Danse scowled at him. “I’d appreciate if you could keep it down if you’re going to talk like a filthy degenerate.”

RJ held up his hands in a surrendering pantomime before they made their way to the Glowing Sea.

 

They made it to a Red Rocket overlooking the sea, and Nora made the call for everyone to change into their hazmat suits. RJ got his legs inside and the suit up to his waist before he heard a scuttling noise zipping towards them, and in an instant he had spotted the radscorpion, dropping the rifle from his shoulder and shattering the insect within feet of the trio.

Nora and Danse only had time to react by the time MacCready had already killed their giant arachnid-like predator. He was faster than they expected.

 

They finished getting dressed and looked through the back room, looting for whatever supplies they could find. Nora walked into the garage, and her gaze fell on a skeleton, but what she was really looking at was the jumpsuit on it.

“Hey RJ, how do you feel about having ‘Bobby’ on your nametag?”

The two made their way into the room, confused.

“Nora, for the love of God-” Danse started.

She ripped the nametag off the suit, holding it up with a cheeky smile on her face. “Too late.”

MacCready laughed heartily as she handed it to him. “I love it.”

Nora turned to Danse. “I promised him a suit with his name on it, opportunity was calling.”

He gave her a stern look. “I don’t even think you understand how screwed up that was.”

She chuckled. “Oh I do, this was personal.”

  
She picked up the skull. “A year before the bombs fell, this guy told me the only reason I had a man’s job was because all the real workers were fighting the Chinese.”

MacCready pinned the tag on his hazmat suit. “A year before the bombs fell?”

Danse motioned to the vault suit. “She was frozen before the war.”

Nora corrected him. “Sort of after. I watched the bomb hit Boston on my way down into the vault. The sky was getting dark, minutes to sunset, and all of a sudden it was blinding. Everything I knew consumed into deafening white noise.” She looked over at the big red button on the wall, listening to her previous life flash behind her in a whir.

They fell silent as she walked over and pressed it, opening the garage door and letting sunlight flood the previously dark room.

“If the bombs never fell, I would have been starving to death like everyone else when I got to my fifties. It was probably the only way the human race would have survived the century, ironically.”

MacCready raised his eyebrows and averted his gaze. “Well I was going to say that for a vault-dweller, you’re pretty unphased. But for a normal, pre-war person-”  
  
She snorted. “Normal! He just told you I was frozen for 200 years. I’ve somehow accidentally joined the military, a robot lead me to you in a speakeasy, and we’re in hazmat suits looking for a renegade scientist. Stay on track, Bobby.”

   
Without his hat in broad daylight, Nora realized that he was also much younger than he appeared in the Third Rail; younger than her even, so to speak. He looked at her, prompting an explanation as to why she was staring at him.

“How old are you, MacCready?”

He locked the fingers in his suit a few times. “Old enough. Why do you care? Mind your business.”

The possibility of being protected from the Glowing Sea by a teenager didn’t exactly sit well with her. “Can you at least ballpark if you don’t want to tell me your real age?”

He sighed dramatically. “I’m 22 years old, my friends call me RJ, my favorite color is orange, and I’m a Scorpio.”

Danse looked at him in disbelief. “Someone like you has friends other than Valentine?”

MacCready gasped. “And so you can make jokes! I was really worried there, it was getting awkward.”

Nora stopped both of them. “No more sarcasm, no more jokes until we find Virgil. Agreed?” MacCready shrugged and nodded, and Danse nodded towards her.

  
Approaching the impact point of the nuclear bomb, Nora was horrified at how the sky still glowed above it.

“Are there.. people down there?” She asked.

“Children of Atom. Bunch of freaks, pray to the radiation or whatever.” MacCready nodded.

  
After some interrogation, they pointed her in Virgil’s direction. They came across a cave that matched the description they gave.

Danse lead the way in, and yelled out “super mutants!” drawing his rifle on the mutant.

The green giant screamed, “Stop! Don’t shoot!” Putting his hands behind his head in a surrender.

Danse lowered his rifle in confusion, wondering if this could be a trap.

“I thought it would be the Institute to come and snuff me out, not the Brotherhood of Steel.”

Nora and Danse turned to each other, curious. “You know of the Brotherhood of Steel?” Nora asked.

“You guys came in on a giant airship and announced your presence to the commonwealth. I live in a cave and even I saw it.” He motioned for her to continue.

“Does that make you Dr. Virgil, then?”

  
His eyes darted in her direction. “That depends on who is asking.”

Nora holstered her gun. “A mother of a child who was kidnapped by the Institute. I need to find a way to get in and save my son. He’s only a baby.”

He sighed, scratching his head. “If you managed to find me before the Institute did, did you at least find out how they happen to travel in and out?”

Danse answered for her. “We know that they get in and out by some kind of teleportation device, and we wanted to know if you would be able to help us with such a device.”

Virgil paused before answering. “To be honest, I’m not one of the Advanced Systems scientists, or even an engineer. I worked in Bioscience, and we never really got to use the technology. However, we would need to be able to tune into the special frequency that the Institute uses to transfer their coursers, and to do that, well..” he stopped.

“Well, what?” MacCready asked.

“You would need to kill a courser and get their relay chip. Special hunter synths that the Institute uses to recover their escaped synths. They’re stronger, faster, and have cloaking capabilities. But after you kill one, we should have what we need to begin building your teleporter.”

Nora tightened her fists. “And where exactly do I find one?”

Virgil turned away from her and began doodling on a piece of paper. “Start at the old CIT ruins. Somewhere around there you can try and find the frequency on your radio. The stronger the signal, the closer you are to him. Good luck, you’ll need it.”

“Thank you for your help.” Nora said after a moment.

“Don’t thank me yet.” Virgil continued to doodle.

 

They left him to whatever it was he was doing, and started to make their way back towards CIT. They came across an abandoned cabin and decided to set up camp for the night. RJ built up a pile of wood and tinder, before lighting a Molotov and smashing it on his makeshift fireplace.  
“I’m an expert at lighting campfires.”

Danse shook his head as Nora kept a straight face, not wanting to encourage him. “I can see that. Make sure we’re further away next time you decide to make a fire that way, though.” She said.

MacCready rubbed his hands together. “I got the fire, one of you getting the grub?”

Danse’s power armor made a hissing noise as he exited. “I hope you like mole rat. Or dog food. Because that’s what we share with foul-mouthed mercenaries.” He said, half-jokingly.

“Aw come on, is that what I get for stopping you two from becoming neon scorpion shish kabobs?”

He stopped talking when he actually saw Danse outside of his power armor. Mental puzzle pieces clicked in place as he once again began to question the professionalism of their companionship. He might not be her poontang bodyguard, after all. This guy could easily get a woman with aspects other than his size and strength, unlike what he had previously deduced.

Looking at his face, RJ could still tell that Danse was a wastelander. He had several small scars on his face, as well as one long one that went down the right side. Save for a scratch on top of the vault-dweller’s head, she didn’t have a mark on her, just like the one he met when he was a kid.

 

He made his way into the cabin, dragging the two chairs out to the fire. One was a small plush decorative chair, the other a simple wooden seat with armrests. RJ went back into the cabin, returning with a crate and a throw pillow and handing them to Danse.  
“Sorry buddy, I’m guessing they didn’t have a lot of company.” MacCready shrugged.

“Why do I sit on the crate?”

RJ motioned to Nora. “She’s older.”

He took a seat in the wooden chair, digging through his bag and pulling out a bottle of whiskey.  
“Care for something to drink? It’s still sealed.” He held the bottle out to Danse.

“No thank you, I have my own.” He pulled a flask out of his boot, and Nora shot him a glance.

“How about you then? He said, handing it to her.”

She laughed. “No thank you, whiskey puts me to sleep.”

He poured a shot in the cap and handed it to her. “Goodnight, please don’t die of dehydration.”

 

Within an hour of downing some snack cakes that she brought, she was out in her cot, sleeping bag pulled up to her nose. The other two sat outside of the cabin watching the fire crackle. MacCready made a point of watching Danse’s face until they made forced eye contact.  
“So what’s the deal with the two of you? I already know you mind me asking, but I’m gonna keep guessing until you tell me.”

Danse took a sip of his whiskey. “Give me your best guess.”

RJ narrowed his eyes, drawing the best conclusion he could with the information he had.  
“She’s got something you want, or you wouldn’t be here. I thought she was driving your little soldier, up until you got 300 pounds lighter and I see it’s not just size you’ve got to offer. You look important, like you’ve got places to be. So you’re following a beautiful woman on what is surely a suicide mission.. because you also have beef with the Institute? Oh and you’re clearly attracted to her, because nobody ever denied you boning, and it’s never a good idea to have a vault-dweller calling the shots.”

Danse took another long swig before replying. “She actually found me first, and saved me from getting ripped limb from limb by ghouls. I got her into the Brotherhood of Steel, and now I’m her commanding officer. I’d be made a laughing stock of if any of my colleagues saw her jerking me around in the field like this, however I’m in no position to be giving her orders.”  
  
“Speaking of jerking you around, what about the sex?” MacCready asked in anticipation.

“What about it?” Danse asked, glaring at the fire.

RJ whined, “Come on man, I haven’t touched a woman in 2 years, and she shakes her ass when we're following 20 miles behind her. I'm sure it's for you, but just watching her walk gives me a limp. Give me something!” He shook his hands in front of him dramatically.

Danse laughed and shook his head. “We slept together once, and we cleared everything up the morning after. If it’s discovered that any funny business occurred, it would mean the end of both my prestigious career as a soldier, and possibly the end of Knight Klain’s search for her son. It’s just too big of a risk for foolish impulses.”

RJ poured himself another shot before slamming it on the arm of his chair and downing it. “Bummer. At least you got it in once before certain death.” He raised his empty cap to the Paladin.

“I’ve.. been with other women. But Nora is.. well she’s valiant, and her spirit is indomitable.” He said, looking at the cabin.

MacCready clicked his tongue before saying, “She’s an eyeful.”

Danse put his face in his hands. “I’m certainly not blind, Robert, but you’ve got eyes too, wandering ones at that. I’m not going to point out the obvious when you ask me what makes her special.”

RJ cringed at being called ‘Robert’. “Well if her beauty is so apparent, tell me what all I’m missing out on.” He teased.

Danse crossed his fingers together while he leaned back in thought. “Well, she’s a hell of a shot, and her laugh is small and sweet. Her smile could stun me, like she practices it in the mirror to maximize its effect. And.. the way she said my name will haunt my dreams forever.” Danse sighed again, acknowledging once again that him caving to his childish desires only left him craving her.

“She a screamer, then?” MacCready asked, bringing a curious sensation to Danse's gut. 

“Well, not a screamer, but definitely loud.” Danse shrugged.

RJ smiled. “Hot. loud girls are still dangerous, though. Did she cum?”

“I didn’t ask.” He said, eyes wandering back to the fire.

MacCready waited for Danse to look back at him to roll his eyes.  
“I’m sure I’m not the only one you killed with that attitude.”

   
“Do you think you love her?” He asked, leaning forward on his elbows.

Danse froze, before adjusting his posture to a more confident one. “Well, I would certainly die for her. But that’s less meaningful I suppose, since I would already die for the Brotherhood. I still don’t know very much about her, so I’ll wait on that judgement.”

MacCready hesitated for once before speaking. “Do you think she loves you?” He pried.

“Certainly not. She identifies primarily as a mother, she’s a widow, and I’m sure her feelings were nothing more than that of gratitude mixed with.. confusion of sorts.” Danse replied, before taking a long swig.

“She let you finish inside?” MacCready asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Danse felt a flash of guilty pleasure wash up his spine, before he dropped the flask from his lips and pulling them into a small smirk. “Her words were, ‘Don’t you fucking dare pull out.’ I couldn’t have then even if I wanted to.” A large smile crept across his handsome face.

MacCready dropped his empty bottle next to the fire. “Danse you dirty boy. I don’t mind you lying to me, but you oughta stop doin’ it to yourself.” He slurred.  
“What happens when you find her son?”

Danse sobered up a moment, imagining himself invading on her family. The future had brought her nothing but pain, and he was no exception.

“Well, _if_   we survive the trip inside the Institute, and that’s a big if, I would imagine things can only go a couple of ways:  
One, she could find her son, decide she doesn’t need me anymore, and I’ll probably go back to the Brotherhood of Steel.  
Two, she doesn’t find her son, and we burn the Institute to the ground.”

RJ scoffed. “There’s no way that you want either of those options happening. What do _you_ want to happen?”

Danse hesitated before answering. “First and foremost, my duty is to help her find her son. Then _if_   she wants to be with me, and that’s another big if, then I would have to choose between her and the Brotherhood, because I can’t have both. However if I choose her over the Brotherhood, I’ve got quite a bit of trouble coming my way.”

Danse stood abruptly, walking inside the cabin. “This conversation didn’t happen.”

MacCready winked while mock saluting in agreement. “Aye aye captain.”

  
  
The next afternoon, they reached the CIT ruins before tuning into the courser signal.

After a few minutes, they followed it to Greentech Genetics and took out the raiders outside. MacCready’s eyes grew wide as he spotted the gunner paint on the door. Danse pushed him aside and lead the way into the building, surprised to find it nearly deserted. 

"I'm not sure what she's paying you for if you can't take point." He barked.  
  
  
The courser was easy enough to find, what wasn’t easy was taking down all the gunners he had left, and then him. With all three of them firing on the courser, he finally collapsed.

“What in the hell do they make these things out of?”  
Danse asked, approaching the body.  
  
He must have sustained a few hundred shots, but it looked like maybe 20 of them had hit.  
For once, the sight of gore sickened Nora. His head lay cracked open and bare. She tried repeatedly to tell herself that he wasn’t a real person, but she watched the color drain from his face as blood spilled over the metallic floor.

 

Nora removed the courser chip from his skull, and Danse eyed over the device in her hand. “That chip is probably heavily encrypted. How are you going to get access to it?”

“Doctor Amari doesn’t have the technology for hacking.” MacCready said, woefully.

“Well do you know anybody who does?” Nora asked.

RJ scratched the back of his head. “Our best bet is probably the Railroad. They’re already the Institute’s number one enemy, and I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help you get inside.”

Nora sighed before putting her hands on her hips. “Okay, do you know where they are? I don’t have time to be playing hide and seek with secret societies.”

Danse repeated the slogan they had seen on the wall in Diamond City. “Follow the Freedom Trail.”

RJ pointed at him. “Good boy. I’ll help you find the end of the trail, but then I’ve got to head back to Goodneighbor to restock.”

 

With his help, taking down the mutants on the trail was more or less easy. After they arrived at The Old North Church, MacCready said his goodbyes and the remaining two made their way inside.

 

“Hold it right there.” Said the redhead on the platform after they managed to open the trap door the ferals were seemingly guarding.

“How did you find us, and what is your business here?” She spoke again.

Nora dropped her weapon and raised her arms. “I’ve got a courser chip, and I’ve been told the Railroad would be able to decode it.”

Desdemona scoffed. “So we’ve got a comedian. Listen, we don’t have time for games, so if you could just give up your source-“

Nora interrupted her. “I followed the freedom trail. I killed a courser so that I could get access to the teleporter he uses to get in and out of the Institute. Sound serious enough yet?”

The redhead laughed. “Fucking teleportation. It makes sense, it really does. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a stranger, and your partner in the power armor doesn’t ease my nerves either. Could you have him step out actually? At the very least I like knowing what my visitors look like.”

Nora gave a serious look. “Actually I would prefer he didn’t. Your friends still haven’t lowered their weapons, and this isn’t his business. It’s mine.”

 

A man in a cheap wig entered the room. “There’s the courser-killer. What gives with my invitation to the party, Des?”

If looks could kill, wigman would have been finished.

“Deacon, you’re telling me this vault-dweller actually killed a courser? That’d give even Glory a run for her money.”

He chuckled. “And a building full of gunners on the way, like a warm-up.”

The woman turned back to her. “Well I suppose you’re a force to be reckoned with. I can bring the information back to you once my guy has it decoded.”

Deacon interjected. “Des! This lady killed a courser, show her some respect and let her in. We need people like her.”

She raised her voice as well. “You don’t need to undermine me, just like I don’t need to put my people in danger!” She turned back to Nora. “But I suppose he has a point. Any courser killer is good in my book.”

 

Nora breathed a sigh of relief before Desdemona led her into Railroad HQ, and a man in overalls came up to her.

“All right, where is it?” He asked, excitedly.

The redhead motioned to Nora. “Courser-killer, meet Tinker Tom. You want that chip decoded? He’s your guy.

She eyed him over. Was this guy on drugs? He was jaundiced, and shook like he was hypoglycemic, so she almost wondered if he was even capable of cracking the code. However, she was glad to be proven wrong when he managed to do it in under a minute.

“Your skills are quite impressive.” She told him.

“Not as good as yours apparently, the last courser chip I decoded wasn’t intact. This one is pristine, so you must be a true professional.”

She wondered how it was that way, thinking back on her and her two accomplices firing wildly into the synth to take him down, unaware of the location of the chip or any weak spots.

“Thank you.”

Desdemona put her hand on Nora’s shoulder. “If you find anything else out about the Institute, I would appreciate you share that information also. As you probably know, we are currently their number one enemy, the only people standing up for the synths inside. The Institute creates synthetic people, and uses these people with free will, flesh and blood to do their bidding. Sounds a lot like slavery to me, wouldn’t you agree?”

Nora pondered her answer, considering how hostile Danse was against them. “I had no idea that synths other than Valentine were capable of free will.”

“Hmph.” Danse huffed behind her.

Desdemona looked up. “Do you have something to say, young man?”

Nora interrupted-”No, he doesn’t!” She shot a glare at him.

   
The redhead took a step in his direction. “No, I want to hear what it was he had to say.”

   
Danse looked to Nora, then back to Desdemona. “Gen 1 and 2 synths don’t have free will, flesh, or blood. What’s the difference between them and a microwave? Aren’t you just as bad as the Institute if you don’t treat all technology fairly and just?”

   
She raised an eyebrow. “I suppose that’s the million dollar question. But I’ll be honest, if it comes down to a robot that cries for its life versus a computer terminal, I’m saving the synth every time. As for the earlier generation synths, they’re simply earlier versions of the free-willed gen 3s. They experience a narrow range of emotions- satisfaction, curiosity, fear. As long as they’re not trying to kill me, I’ve certainly got no reason to do them harm.”

   
Danse cocked his head. “I’ve never seen a gen 1 or 2 that wasn’t trying to kill me.”

   
Nora glared at him for not excluding Valentine.

 

She thought back on the synth she helped narrowly escape death from Greentech Genetics. She.. was indistinguishable from any human she had ever met. Nothing like Nick, who she could tell wasn’t human from a mile away, and who she wouldn’t have gotten this far without.

   
“Well let’s hope that changes when you make it into the Institute.” Desdemona teased.

   
“I’ll be back here as soon as I make any progress, thank you again for decoding the courser chip.” Nora interrupted politely.

 

They made their way up the brick stairs, Deacon following behind them. As Danse made his way out of the door, Deacon slipped in between them and slammed it shut, cutting Danse off and getting uncomfortably close to Nora.

“You still need a code name before you can leave. I see that you’re very talented at talking to snakes, so I’ll call you Charmer.”

Nora scoffed. “You get to pick all the new code names?”

He shrugged before opening the door. “We normally let people pick their own names, but you seemed like you were in a rush so I improvised.”

She stepped out, greeting Danse as he took off his helmet to show his dissatisfaction.

 

“That’s okay, I like Charmer.”

 

“I knew you would. I’d just like to let you know that you should pick your friends wisely. Not bagging on anybody in particular, but as someone who’s been on your ass for awhile, you should be less trusting in strangers.” Deacon smiled an innocent grin before slamming the door in the exact same motion he had used to slam it on Danse.

 

Nora and Danse departed from the church, making their way back to the Glowing Sea. Virgil actually seemed surprised to see them in one piece. He handed her what must have been the product of his doodles.

“From what I can remember, these are the schematics. The list of everything you need is right there, but this is a big project, even for you. Do you have someone to help you build this?” Virgil asked.

Nora wondered for a moment. “The Minutemen owe me a favor, I’ll ask them. Thank you, Dr. Virgil.”

He grunted. “I’m not making any promises that this will work, but it should. Should you survive the trip, I would appreciate if you could obtain my serum from the FEV laboratory. It’s the cure for my condition, so if you could do anything in return for my help, please do this.”

 

Nora nodded as she made her way out of the cave and started on her long journey home. The day dragged on as they headed north, and they stopped again at Fort Hagen to see if the Institute came back and found what was left of Kellogg. As they suspected, he was still there, rotting with the rest of the synths.

Nora was climbing up on cabinets looking for supplies for her teleporter, and Danse eyed over her figure in a moment of weakness.

Visions of her naked body flashed through his mind, and he realized he made a mistake when he pictured himself holding her legs and driving deep into her. The memory of the sensation forced a sigh from his chest.

“Is everything okay back there?” Nora asked.

“Yeah. Is there anything you need help with?” He replied, taking a step closer.

She grunted as she pulled backwards on the jammed drawer. “I think I’ve got this about unstuck. Want to see if there’s anything useful on those top shelves?”

“On it.” He reached up and grabbed a bread box, tossing it behind him on the floor.

He swept his hand over the shelf, and took a few steps back behind her before she spoke again.

“Are you gonna take your helmet off or are you just going to keep pretending you’re not staring at my ass while I do all the work?” She put a hand on her leg and turned over her shoulder to face him.

He could see the satisfaction in her face from catching him red-handed.

He shook his helmet. “Sorry I uh, sort of spaced out.”

She turned away and began digging in the lower cabinets, spreading her legs far apart and bending down low while bringing her ass up high in the air for him to see.

“Is that a common use for your power armor?” She egged him on.

“You act like that’s the only thing I hide behind my power armor.” His flirting back caught her off guard.

She giggled. "Care to elaborate?"

  
He smirked, and she nearly hit her head on the cabinet as she heard his power armor hissing open behind her.

She turned around and watched him dislodge himself from the armor, quickly pulling off his hood and unzipping his suit about halfway.

She felt her mouth go dry. “What’re you doing?”

“It’s hot as all hell in here without the power armor.” He said, fanning himself with his hood. "As you put it, elaborating." 

She quickly eyed him up and down, and her hand came up to cover her mouth when she spotted the huge bulge in his jumpsuit.

“Now who’s staring?” He smirked at the expression on her red face.

She hesitated. “Were you that big the other night?”

He chuckled, “Probably bigger.”

Her hand stayed on her face as she continued to stare at his dreamy body, and she felt desire rising in her throat as her eyes slowly traced along the hair on his powerful chest.

He wanted to order her to strip naked and bend over the steel cabinets so he could relieve himself. He wanted to hear her say his name again like she did in her sleep the last time they were here. He knew that she was in his head, and he wanted to be in her.  
He didn’t want to scare her away, but words just never seemed to come out right when he directed them at her. So he used body language instead.

   
“Stay right here.” She said, pointing to his feet. “I’ll be right back.”

   
She came back a few minutes later with a yellow chair.

“Why’d you only bring one chair?” He asked.

She put the chair down in front of him before unzipping her vault suit. “Let’s say we’re gonna be sharing it.”

 

He hurriedly began to pull the zipper on his suit down, and Nora clicked her tongue in disapproval. “Keep it on.”

He worked his hard cock free of his suit before taking a seat in the chair.

“You want something to stare at?” She pulled her suit down to the waist and slipped her arms out, before slipping her thumbs under the tight fabric and wriggling her body provocatively as she worked it past her hips.

   
He leaned forward in the chair and pulled her closer to him, kissing the soft skin on her torso as she pulled the suit further down her body.

After pulling the suit down to her knees, Danse eagerly hooked a hand around her waist and pulled her on top of him, yanking the vault suit free of her other leg while she tousled his messy black hair. She ground her hips against him before firmly grabbing the base of his dick and sliding the tip of it into her as Danse pushed upwards.

   
Nora felt him descending deeper until she finally reached the base of him with her vulva.  
“Ad.. Victorium.” She squeaked out, forcing a laugh from Danse, his body rumbling beneath her. She used her legs to bounce up and down on him while his eyes locked on her face.

The expression on it was perfect. She looked like she was stuck between determination and bliss, but he wanted to be sure. 

“How does that feel?”

“Ah! Uh- it feels.. incredible!” She got out as her face turned an even brighter shade of red.

He admired the contrast of her red skin against his orange flight suit while she tried to steady her shaking legs, concentrating on rubbing her clitoris against his suit each time she made it back down to the base of his cock. He placed a hand on her warm back and sucked a nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue.

“Danse! Oh my god!” She said, her pitch increasing. She nearly stopped breathing, and he used the opportunity to start pushing deep inside her, grinding against her when he was in to the hilt.

Her whole body tensed up and he held her waist tenderly while she bounced at his force. “I’m gonna cum!” She whined, tightly grabbing the back of the collar on his suit.

He watched the sternness leave her face, immediately replaced by bewilderment. She was overwhelmed by the sensation of him inside her, and soon they both felt her seize up as her muscles clenched erratically around his sensitive shaft.

  
She fell nearly limp in his arms as he slowly continued thrusting. The pleased look on her face nearly brought him to the edge of his own climax, and a groan escaped him.

She traced her fingers over his chest and glanced at his holotags in the palm of her hand. “Gabriel Danse?” She flirted, whimpering his name in satisfaction.

   
He pumped harder as his toes began to curl, and his hips moved out of rhythm as he exhaled hard.

“Are you cumming?” She asked, grabbing his chin.

He nodded quickly and she pulled against the force of his hands on her ass as she withdrew his large member. She felt hot spurts splashing down her ass and thighs, and she looked up at the tinge of disappointment on his otherwise satisfied face.

She kissed his forehead. "While I'm thankful for you saving me, and you're the kind of man that makes my insides scream to reproduce, you can't finish in me all the time. What happens if I end up getting knocked up by my CO?"

His silence surprised her.

Her arm draped around his neck, and his eyes fell to the floor.

“I’ll probably be demoted, and it’s very likely you’ll be discharged. Maxson wouldn’t go easy on us.”

   
Nora sat back down on his lap and kissed him tenderly, her vault suit still hanging from her ankle.

“I want to be with you. But that’s not how I want to do it.” 

Hearing her say she wanted to be with him was bittersweet. 

Danse nodded. “I understand. There’s not many options outside of that and leaving the Brotherhood, but that comes with consequences too.”

   
“You’d leave the Brotherhood for me?” She asked, stunned.

He hesitated. “I.. if it came down to it, then yes.”

  
The words left his mouth before he had thought about it. Did she mean more to him than the Brotherhood of Steel? He lived for the Brotherhood, but he loved Nora. He held her in his embrace for what seemed like forever, before they had to continue their trip back to Sanctuary Hills.


	5. Tough Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Major plot spoilers* *Trigger warning*  
> Nora makes it to the Institute, followed by Paladin Danse being confronted by Elder Maxson.
> 
> Afraid of chastisement for his actions, Danse tries to tell Nora that things won't be working out, and she doesn't take it very well. Their affair reaches a turning point as he tries to regain control of the situation.

Nora made sure to stop by Graygarden and let them know that their water problem was resolved on their way to Sanctuary Hills.

By sunset, they reached a bridge overlooking a river.  
“Hey Preston!” Nora shouted excitedly, waving to the man on a stoop at the end of the bridge.  
  
“General! It’s been awhile. What can I do for you on this beautiful Autumn day?”

Danse eyed her. Did he just call her General?

  
She made her way over to Garvey. “I’ve discovered a way inside the Institute, but I need help reading these schematics and building the relay device.” She said, handing him the paper Virgil gave her.

Preston eyed over the doodle and whistled. “A way inside the Institute. Man I can’t understand a word of this. If you take this over to Sturges, I’m sure he can make sense of it. I haven’t found anything yet he couldn’t build or fix.”  
  
He handed her the note, and she jogged over to Sturges. “Hey Sturges, think you could build something for me?”  
He read over the signal interceptor plans, and whistled the same way Garvey did. “S’this some sort of.. teleportation device? Way cool. I could try, let’s give it a go.”

  
After a few hours of the trio stripping sanctuary of all scraps, they had built their relay device.

Digging through her neighbor’s garage for copper, Sturges came up to Nora and kicked her in the back of the boot.  
He cleared his throat. “He seems like a polite, intelligent gentleman. The hardass kind.”  
  
She turned back to face him. “Do you disapprove? Of the hardass kind, that is.” She smiled.  
  
Sturges crossed his arms. “I’m not sure it matters if I do.” He said, smiling back.  
  
She stood upright, leaning against the toolbox she was digging in. “Of course it matters. You guys are the only friends I've got. Your opinions all matter to me.”

Sturges shook his head. “You sure know how to make a guy feel special, but you're not thinking about me and Preston when you're running around with Paul Bunyan.”  
  
Nora laughed. “Do you feel challenged for your title of most gigantic person in our itty-bitty little settlement?”

  
He sighed. “Now, that is a challenge I would lose. I do like him, though. He’s not too afraid to follow you around the commonwealth, not that I can imagine there’s much that guy would be afraid of with you in the lead.”

“He’s got nerve. Gives me no shortage of trouble.” She chuckled again.

  
He looked her over once more. She didn't appear any more like a soldier than the first time he laid eyes on her.   
When they met, she was a frightened displaced housewife, and it showed. But she took down the raiders between her and Mister Garvey, and looked damn good doing it. Something changed in Nora when she killed that deathclaw. She made a decision on the roof in Concord, that nothing was going to come between her and her boy- not a deathclaw, not death itself. 

“I wanted to talk to you about something before we send you to the Institute, something other than your choice in.. friends for the last couple of weeks.” Sturges showed her a holotape.  
“I think we should use this opportunity to get as much information from the Institute as possible. I’ve set this holotape to fit as much data off of the mainframe as possible. All you need to do is insert it into one of their terminals and hit load, then bring the holotape back to me when the download is complete.”

Nora looked at him, stunned. “Did you not just need my help hacking into a basement in the museum?”

He smiled, cracking his knuckles. “And I’ve spent the last 2 months here in Sanctuary learning these babies inside and out. There’s not a damn thing out there that I can’t fix, I thought I told you that.”

He held an arm out for her to grab, and she wrapped a small hand around his bicep before they made the short walk to the build site.   
  
"Really hope I'm not walking you to the electric chair, darlin'." He joked.

"I trust anything you built, Sturges. Don't doubt yourself now."   
Nora finished wiring the generators together and hit the power switch.

“Looks like she’s good to go. Only one way to test it, you ready to hop on? Here’s that holotape you need to scan their network for information.” He handed her the orange holotape.

  
  
She turned to Danse. “I wanted to talk to you about this in private, but I didn’t really get the chance to. I don’t think we should risk the defenses scattering the signal and killing both of us. You should stay here.”

He took off his helmet, offended. “Excuse me? I’m not going to let you get killed the second you’re on the cusp of finding your son!”

  
Sturges put a hand on his shoulder. “You should let her go find her son. She’s right, there’s no way of even knowing she’ll survive the trip.”

Danse looked at her and pulled her into an embrace, before helping her climb onto the platform.  
He wanted to say goodbye. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, but to do so would be childish and unprofessional, not to mention it could potentially cause unnecessary strain on her during her mission.

  
“You ready?” Sturges interrupted their silent interaction.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She said, wrapping her scarf around her neck another time to conceal her face.

“Give ‘em hell, boss.” Sturges smiled, hitting the fire button on the control panel.

 

In a flash of blue, she felt herself ripped apart and rematerialized inside of a cold dark facility. There was a buzzing noise droning in her ears that was hard to ignore. A man’s voice came over the PA system, introducing himself and the Institute to Nora.  
  
She followed the intercom voice. This place didn’t feel real. The whole interaction felt like a dream, like she was somehow sedated.  
Down the elevator, then up another, and then suddenly..  
She was standing in front of the young boy she had seen inside Kellogg’s brain. Kellogg even called him Shaun. He was locked inside of a small room. He didn’t recognize her, and he called for help. For protection from his own mother.

Nora shook her head in disbelief. “Shaun stop, it’s me, I’m your mom!”  
She was too shocked to cry. She felt stupid for not realizing this dilemma, she had been too busy worrying about Danse!

An old man walked in the room, and she hardly understood what he was saying. There was still a buzzing in her ears, up until-  
“I am Shaun. I am your son.” He said, proudly. Nora noted that his posture was better than hers.   
The buzzing dissipated into a high-pitched ringing.

This old man was Shaun? It would have been an understatement to say that it was unbelievable.  
He asked her to join the Institute, to at least meet the division leaders before making her decision.

  
A few hours later, she braced herself as she made her way into Advanced Systems, expecting a scolding like she received in Synth Retention.  
  
She was speaking with Dr. Li when she overheard two women walk by and say “I hope you had fun with our courser, freak.”

“Freak? That’s kind of harsh.” She said to herself.

Dr. Li smirked. “I suppose when you need to take down a courser, you use whatever means possible. They’re just engineers, don’t listen to them.”

  
She finished up her meeting with Li and tested her relay back to Sanctuary. She fell off the platform and Danse picked her up in a tight hug. She was gone nearly four hours, and he must've waited there the whole time.

“Oh thank God.” Danse said, continuing to hold her inches from the ground. It hurt to breathe, but as she exhaled she felt emotion rising in her chest. 

She loved the embrace. It helped to ease the ache of her missing pretty much the entirety of her son’s life in a freezer. She wrapped her arms around his neck and began to sob.

He stopped. “Is your son-“

she interrupted, “He’s alive. He’s the director of the Institute, and in his 60s. He sympathizes with me for the loss of my husband, but considers him necessary collateral damage.”

Danse tried to process all of that information as she continued.  
“They took my son and they raised him into a monster. He doesn’t care about playing God, and he uses his creations however he pleases. They call him “Father” because they used his DNA as a genetic code for the synth DNA-” She paused. “-My DNA. My baby..” she began to cry even harder.

She grieved for the loss of her husband all over. She grieved for the loss of the child she hardly had. Danse put her down, anticipating the next step in her plan.

“I think.. I have a concussion. I need to go somewhere for awhile. It doesn’t matter whether you follow me or not.” She said, walking away.

He followed as backup, but gave her space to think. They kept their distance as he followed her into vault 111. He stood at the end of the hall as Nora walked over to her husband’s cryogenic tomb, slinking to the floor.

“Nathan.. I was too late. I killed Kellogg like I said I would, but it doesn’t make a difference. I found Shaun, but he’s the epitome of everything wrong with this cruel new future. The people who took him, he stayed there for 60 years, and they made him their director.  
Our son is mankind’s enemy Nate.. god what would you say to me right now?”

She got up off her knees and stared hard into his frozen, dead eyes. She straightened up and took a deep breath. “War never changes.”

His stomach dropped as he realized what she meant. He walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, and looked into her husband’s eyes, the bullet wound in his head in a paused trickle down his face.  
What an honor to die for everything he had lost. Nora wouldn’t have turned into the person she needed to be if it weren’t for his sacrifice. He felt pathetic for being jealous of a corpse. The longer he lingered, the more his presence felt like an intrusion.  
Danse walked away.

“I love you.” Nora said finally.

He figured she was talking to her husband and ignored it. She was still obviously in love with her husband, and he had spent the last couple of weeks eyeing her like a piece of meat. He was sure that Nathan would kill him like the scavenging asshole he was if he was still alive.  
If anything, he shouldn’t be lingering around while she longed for the life destiny so cruelly stole from her.

After a while had passed, Nora met Danse at the bottom of the elevator.  
“I thought you had left.” She said with sadness in her eyes.

“I would never leave you in your time of need. I’ll only leave when you ask me to.”

  
It brought the smallest of smiles to her face. At the top of the elevator, they made their way back down to Sanctuary. She made her way into the cul de sac, and saw Sturges building something on the workshop.

“Here’s a copy of the network scan. I made three of them.”

Sturges grabbed the orange holotape and stuffed them into his overall pockets.  
“I’ll get cracking on this right away, boss. Glad to see you back in one piece.”

  
Nora nodded, and walked over to the blue house in the middle of the block before going inside. She stared at her dresser and pulled out a broken picture frame facing downwards.

“This was my family before the bombs fell.”

She handed him the frame, and he flipped it over to look at the picture.  
It was hard for him to imagine her as a mother up until this moment, but it looked fitting on her. She had a carefree smile, much larger than any he had ever seen on her. She had Shaun on her hip, showing off his front two teeth in another big smile. To finish off this heartbreaking picture was her husband, beaming as he showcased his perfect family. You could feel the love in his eyes, even 200 years later.

  
Danse closed his eyes and handed it back to her. “I know it’s not much, but if there’s anything at all I can do, ask.”

She shook her head and sat down on her bed. “We need to give Virgil his serum and head back to the Brotherhood.”

Danse kneeled next to her. “If you need to take time for yourself, go ahead. Virgil and the Brotherhood will still be there when you’re done grieving.”

She put a soft hand on his cheek and he froze. “And my grief will still be here when I’ve done what’s best for my fellow man. I’ve still got to kill my son before I can plan his funeral.”

  
She stood up and walked over to Shaun’s room, putting her hands on the crib, before spinning his mobile out of habit. She wanted to cry, but nothing came out.  
“I’m ready to go if you are.” Nora’s voice broke.

“Let’s go.” Danse put a hand around her and guided her out of the house.

 

They went to the Prydwen first. Nora went straight to Maxson for report, and Maxson laughed a maniacal laugh when she told him she found a way into the Institute.  
“Those eggheads are finished. Take the network scan to Proctor Quinlan as soon as possible so he can decipher it.”

She did as she was told.  
Danse dropped off his power armor in the repair bay on his way to the depot to pick up another two more flight suits for Nora, after that he made his way up to Maxson for report.

  
He walked into the command center, Maxson motioning for him to sit down instead of standing at attention like he always had.

“Proctor Quinlan thought it was odd that Knight Klain was out of uniform when it was clearly in her bag. So he confiscated it from her.”

Maxson pulled the destroyed suit from behind the couch he directed Danse to sit in.

“What the fuck is this, Paladin?”

  
Danse’s head fell into his hands, confessing to his failure. He stared at the suit in his hands.  
“It was my fault. Knight Klain was attacked by raiders in Haymarket Mall. I made the mistake of leaving her secured in an area that wasn’t safe.”

Arthur threw the tattered orange suit on the ground. “That’s bullshit Danse! You expect me to believe that the one person you were responsible for was sexually assaulted?”

Droplets of saliva hit his face as Maxson screamed, and he fought the rising urge to throttle his superior. He was sure everyone on the deck below could hear his roaring slander.

“She was never penetrated in any way. They ripped her suit open and I barged in before the raiders could do much else. Those assholes knew they’d made their last mistake before I got my hands on them.”

Maxson shook his head. “With your bare hands?”  
He sighed. “Either the story is well rehearsed, or you’re both telling the truth. But be warned Paladin, if anything else leads me to question whether or not you’ve been fraternizing with Knight Klain, she will be assigned a new squad leader. And I won’t tell you first, I’ll just do it. I’ve been acting like your friend long enough.”  
He made a cut and swoop motion with his arm.  
  
Danse looked at the floor before Maxson continued. “I understand your struggle. Her constant presence must be very rousing, but you are a soldier, not a dog. Let’s not spend your loyalties on any bitch that throws you a bone.  
Knight Klain has her orders. When you two finish gathering what you need, I want you to stay at the bomb storage facility, alone, until the scribes arrive.”  
  
He knew it was a test. A test that if he failed, would surely separate the two of them and give Maxson the satisfaction of knowing he was right.  
“Yes, sir.” Paladin Danse said firmly, spending every ounce of self control on the rest of the interaction.

“Unless you have any further questions, you are dismissed, Paladin. Ad Victorium!” Arthur quickly pounded his chest instead of saluting.

“Ad Victorium.” Danse saluted back.  
He slunk out of the command deck and into his quarters. He grabbed the remaining cans of dog food and packed Nora’s new suits on top of them. He picked up his armor from the repair bay and met her by the vertiberd.

  
“Why are we in such a rush to leave?” She asked as they left the airport.

“It’s nothing.” Danse quickly assured her.

“It’s not nothing, or you’d make something up to make me feel better.” She rebutted.

He sighed. “Maxson knows. I doubt he has any evidence, but if he’s going as far as to use scare tactics to get a confession out of me, I don’t think he plans on letting up when we come back. I somewhat doubt we’ll be able to be a team much longer.”

Nora felt her heart drop when he said it. “He can’t do that!” She shouted at him.

He hated having to be the one to have to say it. “He can. I’ve told you already that suspicion alone is enough to split us up, and he’s openly admitted that he does. We’re lucky we haven’t been split up by now.  
Nora, I don’t want to be separated from you either, but we have to listen to what Maxson says. He’s trying to keep us both alive and not with clouded judgement-”

She stopped him there. “Clouded judgement! Is that what you think this is? And I thought a mixture of gratitude and confusion was bad!”

  
He felt guilt accumulating in his gut for what he had said to MacCready about her, but that didn’t change the fact that his mind was made up.  
“Your judgement is clouded! I saw it on the bridge, I saw it in the Glowing Sea, and I definitely saw it in Fort Hagen! I’m not sure what you’ve made of this little situation, but it certainly isn’t a relationship. We had sex, no more, no less. It was thrilling, but we put each other in danger and it wasn’t worth it. It’s for the best that we are relocated.”

She tried to think of anything as a come back to the awful things he had just said.

“Enough, that’s an order.” He said finally.  
  
  
They walked in silence to Diamond City, hardly any enemies in their way this time. She picked up Dogmeat and her power armor from Valentine, filling him in on the situation.

“How are things with your buddy?” Nick motioned to Danse, standing at the door so to keep his distance.

“He’s not.” She spoke up so that hopefully he would hear her.

  
She didn’t have to, he was already hanging on to her every word. It made him wince inside of his helmet, but letting her go would keep both of them out of trouble with the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood was keeping both of them alive.

She stopped at Home Plate to change into her flight suit.

“Don’t get used to it, I’ll have my hazmat suit on the second my Geiger goes off.”

For the first time in awhile, he stopped pretending he couldn’t hear her. “You really should wear your power armor too.”

She scoffed. “As if. Unlike you, death isn’t the scariest thing out here that can happen to me, because I have people I worry about other than myself.”

He dropped the subject.

  
She spoke again. “I’ll need you to stay here for a little while while I relay back inside the Institute.”

He nodded, and took the opportunity to rest. He laid there for a few minutes, wondering what he was going to do about the scenario with his Knight that had clearly come to a head.

When they were in ArcJet she was mouthy, but she listened. She obeyed his orders, and respected his authority. Matters were muddied even more by his genuine feelings accumulating for her. Fatigue pulled at him, and he fell asleep daydreaming about the two of them settling down right there in Diamond City, albeit an impossible fantasy.

  
He awoke to the sound of Nora relaying back inside of Home Plate.

“Was that Brotherhood business, or personal?” He asked, an arm still covering his eyes. 

She took her hair out of her bun to redo it. “Brotherhood, not that it’s any of your business. I’m sure there’s a reason that Maxson told me the mission and not you. I suppose you should put more faith in him.” She mocked.

  
They made their way out to the Glowing Sea, meeting Scribe Haylen at Waypoint Echo.

Haylen eyed over the two of them, feeling the tension in the air. Knowing that Danse never talked about his problems, she let it be and let him and Knight Klain get on with their assignment. She gave her the distress pulser, and told her to activate it whenever she found the bombs they needed for Liberty Prime.

“We should head to Virgil first.” Danse said as they left the checkpoint.

“You got it, chief.” Nora said casually.

They dropped the serum off with Virgil and made their way out into the Glowing Sea in search of warheads for Liberty Prime.  
They climbed over a hill and saw a metallic structure jutting out of the landscape.

“Here’s a building, or at least the most of one I’ve seen in over a mile. It’s worth checking out.”

Danse lead inside of the building, killing the three or four feral ghouls that sat in the entranceway. When they made their way into the main tunnel of the factory, Nora stepped out onto one of the grates to take the stairs down, but the anchors for the platform came free from the wall, as it went plummeting hundreds of feet downwards.

She felt herself being pulled backwards as her laser rifle flew out of her arms, falling into the darkness below as well. She pulled out of Danse’s embrace before listening for the impact.

“Righteous Authority..” She whispered.

“It’s just a rifle. This is why you should be wearing your power armor.” He sneered.  
She heard the irritation in his voice.  
“Watch your step, or I might not be there to catch you next time.” He said, handing her another laser rifle.

“A good soldier always comes prepared.” He lectured.  
She scoffed. “Maybe I’m not a good soldier, then.”

 

They found another way to the bottom of the shaft, and cleared out all of the ghouls inside. She was huffing and puffing and giving him an attitude with each interaction.

“Could you please get that circuit board, Knight?” He dug through a chest below a terminal while pointing to the steel table opposite him.

“Get it yourself, Paladin.” She crossed her arms and looked away, but she could feel his glare from across the room.  
“What?!” She demanded back.  
  
He was done with her insubordination. He stood up, and made his way closer, picking up the circuit board and putting it in Nora’s bag before getting in her face and aggressively throwing it on the floor. She looked at the bag, and back at him.

 

“Take off your clothes.” He said, flatly.

She hesitated before slowly pulling at the zipper on her hazmat suit.

“That’s an order!” He shouted, startling her.

She quickly pulled off all of her clothes, but left her socks on, slipping her feet back into her unlaced boots.

 

“It’s fucking f-freezing in here!”  
She stood there before him, shivering with her arms in front of herself while he watched her, contemplating his next move.

“I don’t care. Bend over the table.” He pointed a steady finger.

She begrudgingly turned around and leaned over the cold, steel table, hiking her left knee over the edge of it. She heard a hissing as he exited his power armor, listening to his boots hit the metal floor as he made his way over to her.

“That’s my girl.” He whispered into the back of her ear. She was still livid, but her whole body grew warm as she nearly melted at the words.

He pulled his dick free from his suit, before tracing it up Nora’s thigh and stuffing it inside of her. He clamped a hand over her mouth as the whine escaped her.

“Stay quiet sweetheart.. I don’t.. want ferals.. catching us like this.” He forced out between grunts.

She lightly bit his fingers as he lubricated himself on her, making each thrust more pleasant than the last. She watched his reflection in her Pip-boy as he clenched his teeth and fucked her oppressively.

He let out a groan, and two ghouls sprinted into the room. Danse shot up and grabbed his laser rifle from next to Nora and vaporized them, and she sharply gasped as he suddenly pulled all the way out of her.

As soon as he determined the coast was clear, he reinserted himself into her as deep as he could go. He hooked his left arm behind her knee and firmly grabbed her by the throat with his right hand, lifting her up and using her weight to bring her down hard on his large cock as he held her upright.

The cold air stung on her bare body while his hot breath rolled down her neck and back. She let him screw her in confoundment, shocked that he would act out so differently against what he said to her outside the airport.  
Over the next couple of minutes her face fell from a wince to one of gratification, feeling the tip of Danse’s shaft as it bumped continually against the front of her pulsing g-spot.

“Ah! Don’t stop, don’t stop!” She screamed out suddenly.

She contorted her shoulders and pushed back on Danse while she felt herself succumbing to orgasm, waves of appeasement taking her by surprise. He jerked her face to the side so that he could see the impact as it hit her, and he thrusted faster as he saw control slipping away from her.

“Oh.. Paladin Danse!” The words finally escaped her throat.

He flashed a villainous smile. “That’s right.” He growled, tightening his grip on her neck. “Are you going to listen to me, Knight?”

“Y-yes, Paladin.”

She answered so quickly, it caught him off guard.  
“Am I going to have to do this again to make you behave?”

She paused, whining at the stimulation.  
“Yes please, daddy.”

He let go of her throat and wrapped his arm around her waist, bucking his hips as he came inside of her.  
He swallowed hard. He definitely wasn’t expecting that answer.

 

He put her back down on the table and turned away, making himself decent as he secured his half-stiff erection back into his flight suit. One last ghoul made its way into the room slowly, and Danse blew its head off and went back to watching Nora finish getting dressed. She was still quiet, and he wasn’t sure if she was angry or just surprised.

“Is everything okay?” He asked. She slipped her foot back into her boot and began lacing it tightly.

“You’d know if it wasn’t, right?” She asked.  
  
He nodded his head and they made their way back up out of the factory.  
He didn’t give her any more orders until they made it to the sentinel site. Nora was somewhat surprised to see it standing when all the other buildings around it had been obliterated. They inched their way down the steep hill towards the bomb storage facility.

“Here it is. If there’s nukes anywhere in the commonwealth, it’s in this building.” She said aloud.

They made their way inside and cleared about 20 ferals, and got the jump on some children of Atom that were guarding the storage room. Without hostiles, the place seemed eerily quiet.

  
Danse exited his power armor and began hacking the computer terminal to get into the bomb storage. Nora sat on the desk next to him.

“I think we should talk about what you said at the airport.”

He didn’t look away from the monitor.  
“We both know that we’re better off with the Brotherhood. I stand by what I said.”

Nora scooted in closer to his hand on the keyboard. “Then what about earlier?”

He paused and she realized she was going to have to be more direct.  
“What about it?” He asked, annoyed.

“You told me that I was making the “situation” a bigger deal than it was, then fucked me senseless in an incredibly dangerous position.”

He scratched his nose and let out a tiny laugh. “At least now I deserve your inevitable relocation.”

  
She stood up and glared at him, vexed at his selfish interpretation of his actions.  
“You’ve attempted to cum inside every single time we’ve been intimate. Do you not realize that your actions have consequences, or do you know something that I don’t?” She demanded.

“I apologize for that. The first time, I was just doing what you asked. The second, I had made assumptions based on the first. Back in the factory.. I don’t really know what came over me.” He stopped typing and rubbed his forehead. 

“You apologize for that? Do you apologize for telling me you wanted a baby, then saying it was for the best I was relocated?”

He looked away from the terminal and over to her.  
“If you’re relocated, we won’t be seeing very much of each other, that I can promise you. I think Maxson has a special place for you on his team. If you’re on his team, I’m guaranteed to be getting sent as far away from his team as possible. He’s allowed to do whatever he pleases, so fraternize away.”

   
She was furious. “And you’re assuming that I would sleep with him if I was put on his team?”

Danse scratched his beard, looking at the floor. “I’m assuming if you’re put on his team, you might not have a choice.”

Nora slammed her hands down on the desk. “And does that not bother you? What the fuck am I to the Brotherhood?”

  
He paused before answering. “I used you, Nora. I invited you to join the Brotherhood for my own personal gain. You showed me that I could get what I wanted, and I took advantage of you. Of course it bothers me, but Maxson is just capitalizing on my mistakes. Whatever happens from here on out is my fault, and for that I’m sorry. Arthur has had his eye on you ever since you set foot on the Prydwen, and you’ll be better off alongside him.”

She turned away and walked to the opposite side of the room. “I knew at Haymarket Mall that you wanted to take advantage of me, but then you didn’t, and you’ve done a lot of good since.  
If worst comes to worst, Maxson won’t prioritize my mission over his desires. You will.  
If I’m removed from team Gladius, I’m leaving the Brotherhood of Steel, Danse.”

He gritted his teeth and knocked his arm across the desk, throwing the metal trinkets on top of it to the floor, before storming over to her. “If you’d leave the Brotherhood for this, you’re a fool.”

Her objective had been to get under his skin, but with him in this clearly distressed state, her desire to step on his toes was quickly overwhelmed by a different type of desire. 

She turned back to face him, giving him a coy look before glancing away and wiping a stray hair behind her ear.

  
“I don’t think I’m wrong for not wanting to be Elder Maxson’s trophy for defeating the Institute. If I’m going to be with anyone from the Brotherhood, it’s you.”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Nora please, you’re losing track of what’s important.”

Her face got red. “And what’s so important that I should let Elder Maxson fuck me against my will for it?”

  
He stood there, taken back by what she said.  
“Nothing.” He said eventually.

Danse wrapped his arms around her. “Nora. I promise I’ll do my best to stay with you as long as possible, but you’re going to have to learn to act like my subordinate in front of the Brotherhood. If you even blush in my direction, it could blow our cover.”

She sniffled, before giving him a small smile. “Coming from someone who felt me up in front of Proctor Ingram.”

He smirked as he remembered their first night on the Prydwen.  
“Yeah that was a pretty dumb idea. It was a hell of an opportunity to let go to waste, though.” He ran his hand down her back and let it rest on her upper rear.

She stood in his clutch, savoring his sweet side that ever so rarely revealed itself. “Why don’t you want to be with me, Danse?”

He squeezed her tighter. “I don’t think you can begin to understand how much I do.”  
She felt tears coming to her eyes as he continued.  
“I just can’t. Do you have any idea what would happen if we left the Brotherhood to be together? Maxson would hunt us down, Nora. It’s not worth dying for, especially when you’re destined for such greatness.”

She looked in his eyes, and saw the pained expression in them. “Okay, I trust that you know what you’re talking about.  
I.. I’ll listen to you and stop being insubordinate. I’m sorry for making this more confusing than it had to be.”

She backed out of his arms, and he looked at the floor.

Danse closed the gap she had made between them, and grabbed her chin, gently pulling it up to face him. This could very well be the last time he would ever get close enough to speak to her, and he wanted her to remember it. He pulled her back into him, locking his mouth onto her soft lips.   
She let him back her into the control panel behind them, Danse squeezing at her ass and thighs while his tongue slipped into her mouth.  
He did his best to ignore the dread growing within him. He wanted to clutch onto her tightly, and she felt the intent as he snatched at any loose fabric his hands found wandering all over her figure.  
  
She felt the red creep along her face as he continued to captivate her, his large body pinning her to the control board.   
The smallest of cries escaped Nora, and within a moment he released her from their union.   
He removed his glove and put his hand on her warm cheek, as Nora was gripped by his unexpected tenderness.

“So uh.. let’s finish clearing hostiles and set the pulser, huh?”

She nodded and made her way over to the terminal, hacking into it and opening the doors to the bomb storage. They made their way around and confirmed the Mark 28 nukes, before Nora activated her distress pulser.  
  
“This is goodbye then, for now.” Danse said.

“Goodbye?” Nora asked, surprised. “Why aren’t you coming back with me to the Prydwen?”

He shifted in place. He didn’t like her being told one half of the plan, and him just being told to stay put. “I have to secure these bombs until the scribes arrive, Maxson’s orders were very clear.”

She was visibly upset by the change of plans, and began pacing in place while she shouted, “This place is crawling with feral ghouls I can’t just leave you!”

Danse tried reassuring her, “Of course you can. If ferals come at me from in here, it will be single file. I can handle it. You should get back to the Prydwen for your next assignment. Dismissed, Knight.”

She gave him a stern look as her bottom lip quivered, threatening to give away how upset she was.  
  
He sighed as she turned on a dime and left without another word. She used her stomping through the facility as a way to hide her whimpers as she cried. Nora wasn’t used to being alone anymore, and the last thing she wanted to do was leave Danse in the same predicament she found him in. She made her way out of the sentinel site and called a vertiberd to take her and Dogmeat back to the airport.


	6. Confession and Avoidance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS*  
> Happy New Year! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up.  
> Nora is given an impossible request, and her faith in the Brotherhood is put to the ultimate test.

Proctor Ingram took a double take as Nora made her way down from the helipad. She thought it quite odd that for once Knight Klain was traveling without her Paladin.  
  
  
“When we’re done here, Maxson wants to see you in the command center as quickly as possible, so I’ll keep this brief. Thank you for bringing Dr. Li back and making any of this possible. I’d like you to do the honors of activating Liberty Prime.”  
  
She walked over. “Big red button?” She laughed.  
  
“Just push it, cherry.” Ingram said, impatiently.  
  
Nora raised her eyebrows and pushed the button. Liberty Prime sprung to life, spouting diagnostics.  
  
“That was fun." She joked. "I’m gonna head back to the Prydwen, see what Maxson wants.”

Ingram smiled at her. “Dismissed, Knight.”

  
  
She walked into the command deck, and Elder Maxson turned to her, a sour look on his face. “Anything you’d like to tell me, Knight?”  
  
She turned up her nose at the accusation. “Not that I’m aware of. Anything you’d like to ask?”  
  
He closed in on her. “Specifically regarding your sponsor, Paladin Danse? Last chance.”  
  
  
She tried to control her breathing. It must have been her turn to take his test, and she couldn’t let Danse down.  
  
“Proctor Quinlan and his scribes have finished decrypting the Institute holotape that you recovered. From our hack into the mainframe, we have recovered several logs of missing and runaway synths.  
One particular missing unit, designation M7-97, is an identical match to Paladin Danse. Even the DNA information they keep on file lines up with our own. And now, he’s gone AWOL. Gone without a trace. On top of all of this, I feel as if he may have told you and sworn you to secrecy.”

Nora paused to take in everything she just heard. Was this some kind of screwed up interrogation tactic?  
  
“Elder Maxson, I swear he never told me anything of the sort.”

He backed off, gathering the best way to put his response, and Nora exhaled.

  
“I’ll take your word for it Knight, but as you and I both know, Danse is no exception to the long arm of the Brotherhood. He is the embodiment of what we must destroy. Which is why I’m ordering you to hunt him down and put an end to this traitor. With your recent close contact with him, you must have an idea where he would run off to.  
  
You have one hour to get any information or supplies you need from the Prydwen-we cannot let him get away.  
There’s a promotion for you riding on the success of your mission. Ad victorium!”

She scoffed to herself. As if. Nora knew he wouldn’t go back to Home Plate in a million years, and they had never suggested a fallback point.  
  
  
“I won’t let you down, Elder.” She saluted and made her way up to the main deck.

  
She rushed down the hall, before she was nearly knocked off her feet by the hand that sprouted from seemingly nowhere. Scribe Haylen grabbed her by the arm and pulled her under the staircase. “What’s this nonsense I hear about Danse being a synth?”

  
Nora shook her head and looked at the scribe. She looked like shit compared to that morning, so the last twelve hours must’ve done a number on her as well.

  
“I don’t know, Haylen. Maxson ordered Danse to stay in the bomb storage facility and me to come back here alone. This is the first I’m hearing about it, too.”

   
Haylen grabbed her temples, visibly shaken.

“Nora. I stopped you because I know that Maxson has ordered you to put him down. I have orders to report any sightings or information I have directly to you.  
I.. I was the one who told him. He needed a head-start. And I won’t blame you if you turn me in, but give him a chance. It doesn’t matter to me whether he’s a synth or a human. I won’t turn my back on him.”

When Haylen was done pouring her heart out, Nora finally spoke. “I.. wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do. Danse has come to mean a lot to me, and I would never harm him. He knows the Brotherhood is hunting him down, so would he shoot me on sight?”

Haylen shook her head. “No. He’d never hurt you, which is why Maxson sent you. It’s the best shot of Danse going quietly. Don’t listen to him, Nora. I’ll tell you where Danse is going, but only if you promise to take all necessary measures to keep him alive.”

  
She nodded before patting Haylen on the shoulder, and starting towards the vertiberd. She requested it take her all the way out to Recon Bunker Theta, and virtually crawled south to the marker on her map. She turned around every few minutes or so to make sure she wasn’t being followed.  
  
Nora walked slowly when she got close, keeping low to the ground and listening for every little noise. She speculated on if this place was always this quiet, or became that way; however, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a metallic whir and click. She would've bet money the turrets in front of her lead to her objective, and swiftly eliminated both of them. She logged into the computer terminal, somewhat uneasy that it was left unlocked, and activated the elevator.

At the bottom, she found Danse. He was slumped in a chair with his head in his hands, his discouraged face making her ache. He lifted his head to the sound of footsteps, and his heart broke as he met eyes with Nora. He had somewhat hoped he’d be dead before he came face to face with her again.

  
“Did Maxson send you after me, or did you hunt me down when you heard the news?” He asked, avoiding her worried gaze.

She didn't want to be the one to tell him that the Brotherhood had turned their back on him, but he had to know.

“Maxson sent me. But Danse.. how could you have never told me?”

He covered his mouth with his hands, before bringing his chin up to rest on them nervously.  
“I swear to you, I never knew. I had no reason to hide anything from you. I don’t even feel any different.. I feel.. really confusing emotions all the time. They can’t possibly be fake..  
We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if it weren’t for Haylen.”

She dropped her laser rifle on the floor and inched closer to him. “She told me where to find you.”  
  
The sudden clattering on the ground snapped his eyes to the rifle, and back up to her.  
He studied her face. She didn’t look angry, or like she actually had any intention of killing him.

  
“I should’ve known Maxson couldn’t go through with his own dirty work. I only wish he had sent somebody else. Does he even want me alive?” A wisp of black hair fell in front of his eye. He looked exhausted.

“Danse, listen to me. Maxson is wrong. Just because you’re a synth, you don’t deserve to die. You’re one of the greatest men I’ve ever met, and I promise you that we will find a way out of this.”

  
He stood up and walked over to her. “You shouldn’t make promises like that. Nora, I’m not a person, I’m a machine. If you disobey Maxson’s orders, you’re disregarding everything the Brotherhood of Steel stands for. It’s creations like me that brought humanity to an end. I need to be the example, not the exception.”

She wrapped her arms around him, and he nearly shuddered with relief at her embrace. “Don’t you dare talk like that. You won’t die today just because the way you were created.” She paused. “I can’t imagine how you must feel right now. I mean, I know what it’s like to have your whole life change in a matter of moments but-”

He interrupted her. “But your old life was _real_. You had a real husband, and a real son, and a perfect life that actually existed before everything changed. I have synthetic memories, and they blur awkwardly with the real ones. They didn’t even bother to give me memories of siblings or parents. Don't tell me you know what I'm going through, because you have absolutely no idea.”

  
  
She looked at him, hurt. “My life wasn’t perfect. My husband was almost discharged for being incapable of not fucking any woman he fought alongside. My son was colicky, and my best friend had just died months before the bombs fell.  
I wanted something to come and end all of my problems, and when the world ended, all I wanted was my old problems back. I’d be all too happy to hear that those three were just synthetic memories, and not real people that I let down.”

He brushed the hair out of her face. “You haven’t let anybody down. You were a loving, faithful wife. In the brief time you cared for Shaun, you developed a motherly instinct so strong, you ripped the whole Commonwealth apart to find him. You did the impossible and found your son at the Institute. If I could have kids.. I wouldn't have deserved to have them with you.” He choked up a bit.

The hitch in his voice made her want to wipe the tears from his sad brown eyes. Each moment spent with him made it harder for her to believe he wasn't human. 

“And you haven't let me down by being a synth. The Brotherhood will have to get through me first if they want you."

  
He shook his head. “If you want me to live, I have to leave the Commonwealth. But I will leave this bunker with you.”  
  
Nora gasped, surprised at what he was saying. “Leave the Commonwealth? And go where?”

He sighed. “The sooner I cross the border, the sooner I can put this all behind me.” He took off his holotags and put them around her neck. “Give them to Maxson, and tell him you killed me, or he’ll just send someone else after us.”

She grabbed the holotags and looked at him. “Can I come find you when I finish my fight with the Institute?”

“Absolutely not. You have people here who need you.” He said, clutching her shoulders.

  
She paused before quietly asking, “Do you need me?”

He looked at the floor while she spoke. “It doesn’t matter what I need. I’m a synth, so you shouldn’t waste the rest of your life following me around.”  

  
She put a hand on his cheek, before saying, “Well I need you. I meant what I said in the vault.”

“That war never changes?” He asked.

“No, when I said that I love you. It wasn’t conditional.” She shook her head.

   
His face turned pink. “You.. you do? Even after everything I’ve said and done to you.. after finding out that I’m not even human?”  
  
She smiled. “Especially after that. I know a hard front when I see one, big guy. There’s nothing wrong with trying to keep me out of trouble.”

Danse paused. “I always knew you were odd, but now I know you’re just plain weird.” He finally cracked a smile.

She wound her arms around his thick trunk, looking up at him. “Did you mean what you said in the vault?”

  
He met her gaze as he tried his best to remember.

  
She continued. “-When you said you would never leave me unless I asked. I can’t help it if the Brotherhood separates us, but you know I would never ask you to leave me.”

He pulled her close to him, her small frame warm against his body. He wanted to make her happy, but him staying in the commonwealth would only put her in danger.

He spoke out against his better judgement. “Come with me. You won’t have to kill your son, the Minutemen have a way into the Institute. We wouldn’t have survived the attack on them anyways, let the Commonwealth deal with its own boogeyman.”

A tear rolled down her face and she smiled. “Do you mean it?"

Danse wiped away the tear as it grazed her cheek. "I mean it. Let's get out of here."

  
  
He led the way out of the bunker, and he froze as he saw Arthur standing outside waiting for them.

“Knight! Why is that thing still alive?” He fumed, pointing at Danse.

“It wasn’t her fault sir, it was mine.” He pleaded.

Maxson turned his glare on him. “I’ll deal with you in a minute!”

  
Nora interjected, “You’re wrong, Elder! Danse is one of your best men, and to have me track him down and kill him like a dog speaks volumes about your character.”

Arthur looked back over to her and scoffed. “You have no room _at all_   to be lecturing me on values. The love of your life has been dead for two months and you’re already on to a new dick.”  He turned his gaze to Danse. “Imagine how quickly she’ll move on from scum like you. You’re not even human.”

  
  
He was wounded to hear such cruel words from a man he thought so highly of. “Can you really speak so lowly of us after everything we’ve done for the Brotherhood?”

“I don’t blame her for being tricked by the likes of you, but Knight Klain is still prime Brotherhood material. I never intended for you to infiltrate the Institute with her, anyways. Turns out, that very decision might’ve saved her life.”

 

Danse hung his head. Maxson was right. He would’ve been charging in for his own recall, or worse, an ambush expecting them because he was one of their creations. “I knew this wasn’t going to last.” He muttered.

Elder Maxson raised a finger. “Don’t tell me you’re perturbed because you knew I planned on relocating her when I had enough proof of your insubordination to remove her from team Gladius. When you returned from finding the bombs, I was going to deploy you out west with Scribe Haylen and Knight Rhys, but I’m glad that our infiltration of the Institute got you out of my sight even faster. At least now we can write off your vile behavior as a result of your synthetic nature.”

Danse removed his hood, defeated. "You're right Maxson. I accept my punishment as a traitor of the Brotherhood of Steel." 

 

Nora was seeing red, and tightened her fists before screaming at Maxson. “No, Arthur! If you lose Danse.. you lose me too. I won’t stay in the Brotherhood if his life means so little to you.”

Arthur shook his head, disgusted. She would leave the Brotherhood for nothing more than an abomination between robot and man. He could have given her anything she wanted-absolute annihilation of the Institute, vengeance of her husband, flesh and blood!

  
He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. When that didn't work, he stormed over to Nora. “If this automatron means so much to you..” He gritted his teeth, and pointed at Danse. “As far as the Brotherhood of Steel is concerned, you were pursued and slain by this Knight, and your remains incinerated! If you ever step foot at the airport or police station, you’ll be fired upon immediately!”

He regained his composure and turned back to Nora. “As for you, we still have business to attend to. Say your goodbyes and meet me back at the Prydwen immediately. That’s an order, Knight!”

  
They stood frozen as they watched Arthur climb into the pilot’s seat and fly away in the vertiberd. Nora went back inside and began to pack up Danse’s things before he walked over to her.

  
“What are you doing? Maxson is letting me live, and letting you stay with the Brotherhood. You should take the opportunity to destroy the Institute so that they can’t steal any more innocent people.”

She stopped and zipped up the duffel bag. “I don’t want to stay with the Brotherhood, and I don’t want to destroy the Institute. I want to leave with you, and you don’t get to change your mind this time.”

  
  
He didn’t know what to say. She was already in a lousy position, but them running off together was only going to make things much worse than they already were. His silence made her stand to face him.

“I do love you.” He said quietly. “I’ll just never be good enough for you. I’m not real, none of this is. My heart and mind were constructed, not gestated. For all I know, I’m a ploy by the Institute to get information out of you.”

He ran his fingers through her hair, and she pulled away. “You are real, being a synth doesn't change that. And if this is a trap, then I’ll go gladly into it. I'm not letting fear of the Institute keep us apart, Danse.”

He smiled, letting out a sigh. “You’re right, but if you keep Maxson waiting, we won’t get very far before he comes after us.”

 

Her heart sank as she realized that he was probably right. On top of that, Arthur was on her tail the entire time in a vertiberd and she was none the wiser.  
She backed into the elevator, tugging at Danse’s collar and pulling him into the safety of the metal box. She didn’t want to think about being chased by the Brotherhood, she just wanted to spend time relishing in her inamorato's presence after she narrowly avoided losing him.

She released his collar and the doors groaned closed, dim moonlight streaming through the small gap. He cradled her cheek in his hand. “You’re really remarkable. You deserve so much better than this.”

“Don’t you wanna say your goodbyes?” she cooed, releasing the collar of her flight suit.

He stopped and stared at her face, and down at her tight uniform. The way that it clung to her body was torture for him, even in his current predicament.

 

He lifted her onto the handrail in the corner of the elevator, kissing her fervidly. He unzipped her slowly, and pulled the orange cloth off her shoulders as he kissed her neck and pinned her in the corner.

Danse pushed his hips into her to support her weight, and slid his hands over her rear before grasping at the flight suit, shimmying it down her body. The look he gave her as he peeled the stretchy suit over her voluptuous thighs made her rub them together, trying to wiggle out of her clothes faster.

 

When the door dinged open at the bottom of the shaft, Danse had his suit pulled down past his waist and was balling Nora right there in the elevator. She used the rails to prop her feet up, so he could get his cock as deep as possible inside of her.

He lifted her right knee and put her small foot over his shoulder, thrusting as she screamed for him to fuck her harder. He clung to her desperately, her hips slamming against the wall as the metal pounding filled their ears. Danse stared at her intensely while she slipped further into the void, glowing red as his holotags bounced up and down on her chest. He hit a sweet spot and when he heard the whine escape her, he pushed faster in the position he was in until she clamped down on him and climaxed, leaving her gasping for breath.

Her mouth felt dry as he slowed his pace. “Do you want me to pull out?” He growled into her ear.

She ran her hands along the cold walls around her, looking for something to hold on to. “Not when you go and ask me like that, I don’t.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and hung there, pushing her hips against him as he thrusted through his own apex.

He stared deep into her half-open eyes as he slowed to a stop, sighing heavily as he pulled out of her. She held onto his neck as she slid down from the rail. “Goodbye Danse. I won’t be gone long, okay?”

  
He paused for a moment, gasping as she hit the button on the elevator. “You know I would do anything to protect you, right?” He asked, out of breath.

  
She pulled the suit over her shoulders as the elevator ascended. “You don’t have to protect me. I love you Gabriel, whether you’re a synth or not. Please don’t think less of me because of it.”

He smiled, trying to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. He grabbed her by the cheek and the back of her head, before bringing her forehead against his. “I love you too. Thank you.”

 

She kissed him on the forehead before heading back to the Prydwen with Dogmeat. Not to her surprise, Arthur was in the command deck waiting for her.

  
“Welcome back, Knight. Congratulations on your resounding success on this mission. As you may realize, there is a missing link in our chain of command, and I think you’ve more than earned the promotion. Paladin Klain, you are also entitled to Danse’s old living quarters, and his custom power armor.” He noticed the confused and upset look on her face.

“To the victor goes the spoils, Klain.”

  
He stepped in close and whispered, “Hit the showers, you stink of treason.”  
“Dismissed, Knight! Ad Victorium!” He said after taking his place back at the front of the room.

“Ad Victorium, Elder!” She saluted back, not wanting to make a scene.

She went back to Danse’s room, collecting all of his things. She packed them into the green duffel bag he had in the corner, and fed Dogmeat some cram she still had before they set off back to the listening post.

She walked there well into the early hours of the morning, but when she arrived, all she found was a note that said, “I’m sorry, I love you.”

  
  
She didn’t know what to do. For about a day and a half she waited. The Brotherhood was going to get nervous if she stayed away too long, so on the third day she was back on the Prydwen, crying herself to sleep in Danse’s bed. Thanks to him, she was probably stuck with the Brotherhood, and that was the last place she wanted to be if he wasn’t there.

“I should’ve stayed with the Minutemen.” She whined to herself.

  
A soft knock came at her door, interrupting her pity party.

She sat apprehensively for a moment. “You can come in.” She called.

  
To her surprise, the door opened and she found herself slumped in bed in front of Elder Maxson. She scrambled to attention. “My apologies, sir!”

He smiled. “I don’t expect the same decorum from you in your private quarters as I do in the command deck, but be aware that I do appreciate the sentiment, Paladin.”

“Duly noted, Elder. Is there something I can do for you?” She asked, embarrassed.

 

He hesitated. “There is. Scribe Haylen is seeking your counsel, and for whatever reason, she sought me out personally to guarantee this meeting of hers. I was not aware the two of you were so close.”

She looked directly at him, and was almost surprised to be met with a genuine look of concern.

“I suppose I could talk to her, although I’m not sure myself what she could want.”

 

Maxson sighed. “I’m sending her back to the police station in the morning, with a new Paladin. It could have something to do with that. But enough speculation, I’ll just leave you two to it.”

He turned around, and held the door open for Haylen.  
 

Nora stammered. “The meeting is right now?”

“I hope you don’t mind my haste." She started. "I only have a couple of hours before we hop on the vertiberd.” Haylen stood at the doorway, holding a food tray.

Nora eyed her hands.

“You haven’t been to the mess hall since you’ve been back. I know you’re hungry.” She said, sliding the tray onto Nora’s desk.

Arthur nodded his head, and let himself out. "I hope the two of you have a pleasant evening." 

"We will Elder, thank you." Scribe Haylen called after him, closing the metal door. 

 

Nora looked at the salisbury steak on the tray. “I'm starving, I just can't bring myself to eat. Not that the food here was very tantalizing to begin with.”

Haylen cleared her throat, and Nora looked up to see her glossy, red eyes.  
  
“Is everything okay?”

 

Haylen hiccupped, before blurting out, “Danse knew you were too good for him, that’s why he wanted me to be the one to tell you that we were sleeping together.” The young woman was clearly upset, be it jealousy, or grief over their commanding officer. 

Nora felt like she had just been hit in the gut. “There’s just no way that’s true, Haylen.” She lied.  
She thought back to when Danse had confided in her about Scribe Haylen. In a moment of insecurity, she joked about there being more than he was letting on, and he fell into a loop of tell-tale repetitive denial.

The scribe dug into her pocket, before slamming something metallic on the desk. “My key to his room. Test it when I leave, see if I’m lying.”

Nora felt heat rising in her entire body. She couldn’t bring herself to hit Haylen, Danse was alive because of her. 

“When was the last time?”

The redhead shifted uneasily.

  
“It doesn’t really matter now, Danse is gone.”

All previous reservations out the window, she got to her feet and tightly clutched the collar of Haylen’s turtleneck with both hands.

“When?!”

   
All she could bring herself to do was turn her head away. “The Glowing Sea.”

Nora’s face grew a vibrant shade of red. “As in.. four days ago in the Glowing Sea?”

  
Haylen nodded and flinched, before Nora released her.  
  
“Get out.”

“Paladin, I- I wanted to know if you wanted to go back to the police station with us.” She asked, standing her ground.

   
Nora cleared her throat so she could hide how close she was to tears. “I’d sooner die than protect that fucking police station. Get out.”

Scribe Haylen grabbed the handle of the door and opened it. “I really am sorry, Nora. I loved him too, you know.” She glanced back at the Paladin’s disheveled appearance before hanging her head, closing the metal door behind her.

  
Nora listened for the slam, before digging in her pocket and reading over the note he had left for the two hundreth time. The note didn’t say where he was going, or if he was even coming back.

“You loved her, too..” She crumpled the paper up in her hand as she slunk into her bed, and started to weep, gasping as tears rolled down her cheeks and soaked the hem of her scarf.  
Her whole body burned with guilt, but for what she couldn't gauge. Her chest began to ache from the tiresome effort of wallowing in self-pity, for being played yet again by some headstrong Casanova. She buried her face in the worn pillow on the bed, bringing the blanket over her head and promptly crying herself to sleep.

  
She woke up in her house in Sanctuary Hills.  
She had been sleeping on the couch again. Since her belly had gotten so big, she liked sleeping against the backrest. A soft knock came at the door, probably what woke her the first time.  
  
She slowly stood up, and slipped her house shoes on her feet before opening the front door.  
  
On the other side, she stood face to face with a young woman. She was short with black hair, pulled back under a cap that matched her military uniform.  
  
  
“Well good day, soldier. Can I help you?” She asked, admittedly a little perplexed.  
  
“Are you.. Mrs. Klain?” She asked, eyeing her large pregnant belly.  
  
“I am.” Nora laughed, nervously.  
  
The woman pulled a folded piece of paper out of her front pocket, and handed it to Nora.

  
“Please forgive me, ma’am. I had no idea.” She turned and walked to a black sedan parked in front of the house, before climbing in the back seat and riding away.

  
Nora’s hands trembled at the folded piece of white parchment as she watched the car shrink down her street. She opened it up and read part of a transcript. Before she could even finish she felt the hand on her shoulder.  
  
  
“I.. was going to tell you I was being suspended.”  
  
She couldn’t breathe, her world was ending.  
She never thought the love of her life would screw around on her while he was flying around and saving the world. He was her hero, but apparently he never thought as much of her as she did of him.  
  
  
She shook quietly. “Nathan? Tell me you didn’t sleep with six women, Nathan.”  
  
She could see the remorse in his face, twisted into a half expression of horror at her discovery.  
  
“I’m so sorry, honey.”  
  
  
She sucked air into her mouth, making a soft wheezing noise as tears fell in quick succession.  
  
“You said you came home to help me.”  
  
  
His eye twitched, and he closed both of them. “I lied.”  
  
She grabbed her chest and eyed over the report again. “Out.”  
  
He stepped towards her, and she stomped on the ground, pointing out the still-open door.  
“GET OUT!” She screamed. Half the neighborhood must have heard, but she didn’t care.  
  
  
He jumped back, before grabbing his car keys and jacket, and slipping behind her through the door.  
  
“I love you.” He said quietly on the doorstep.  
  
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say. He left without another word and she was once again alone with her thoughts.  
  
She fumbled with the phone in her back pocket, before pulling it out and dialing a number. It rang twice before someone picked up.  
  
  
“Hey there Nora-bora. Is everything okay?” Ruby’s voice chimed through the receiver, but Nora couldn’t match her tone.  
  
“Are you busy today?” She mumbled into the phone.  
  
“I should be getting off work here in about an hour or so. Do you need anything sweetie? I know you’re not Catholic but I still gotta soften you up for that whole Godmother deal.” She laughed.  
  
Nora mustered a small smile. “I just need a friend. Somebody to talk to who cares.”  
  
  
90 minutes later, Ruby pushed through the front door with a large box of fancy lad snack cakes.  
  
“Delivery for the most adorable pregnant lady in all of Boston.” She dropped the pink box down on the coffee table, and Nora put her hands in her pockets, before pulling out the note the woman had brought her.  
  
“I’ll trade you.” She said, handing Ruby the paper.

She hesitantly unfolded it, reading over it a few times to make sure she wasn’t misunderstanding.  
  
  
“What the fuck?! How dare he? How could he!” She demanded.  
  
Nora felt the red creep up her face, sliding her hands over herself. “I.. don’t know. What did I do wrong, Ruby?”  
  
She grabbed Nora by the shoulders. “You didn’t do a damn thing wrong. You’ve done nothing but be a wonderful woman to him for the last five years.” She paused. “You said he was coming home, right?”  
  
  
Nora sighed. “He already is, I just told him to l-leave..” Her hands shot up and covered her face to hide her tears.   
She crumpled on the couch and buried her face into a pillow, muffling her screams as she cried harder than she ever had in her entire life. She pulled the pillow back. “I’ve spent my entire adult life with him. I’m having his son. Why doesn’t he love me enough to stay devoted?”  
  
Ruby made herself a spot on the couch, and ran her fingers through Nora’s long hair as she wept.  
“It’s okay honey. He still loves you, but he spends months at a time away, not knowing if he’s even going to make it to the next day. It’s a lot on a man. On top of that, some of those Army brats are looser than those pants are gonna be after you squeeze Shaun out. Put yourself in their shoes. If we get Nate some counseling, you threaten him with the _d-word_ , things have a real potential to go back to normal. At least you don’t have to pay for a lawyer.”  
  
Nora turned her head to the side, away from the pillow. “Each and every one of those soldiers are twice the woman I am, and they’re not disgusting and fat. If Nate wants someone brave like him, who am I to say he doesn’t deserve it?” 

  
Ruby grabbed her hand. “You aren’t fat. You’re having his baby, and that’s brave too. If that doesn’t show him how much you love him, you should let him know that he’s taken his stay for granted.”  
  
She continued to tangle her fingers through the curly blonde strands on Nora’s head.  
“Let him have the house, you have me. I’m good with babies, and Teddy’s going to be moving out eventually. I might get bored of my life without child-rearing.”

Nora softly chuckled. “If I wasn’t six figures deep in a mortgage, I’d gladly take you up on that. I love you, Ruby.”

She planted her red lips on top of Nora’s head. “I love you too, kid.”

  
  
When she woke up, Scribe Haylen was stroking her hair with a smile on her face.  
“You left your door unlocked. Did you know you talk in your sleep?”

Nora rubbed her eyes, and looked down at her wet pillow. “Yeah, Danse only told me every day for a month.”

She sat upright and looked at Haylen. “I’m sorry, I had no right to be upset with you earlier. You were with him first, and I was just ignorant of the situation until now. That was unfair of me.”

  
The scribe exhaled in relief. “Don’t make more out of it than it was. I wasn’t lying to you when I told you I was in love with Rhys, but it was the inappropriate nature of my relationship with Danse that hindered his interest in me. Maybe now he’ll change his mind, then again maybe not.”

Nora sighed, and Haylen could still tell there was something weighing heavy on her mind. “What else is bothering you?”

  
Nora eyed her key on the desk. “Did you know?”

“Danse has a bit of a.. reputation if you will.” Haylen started. “There was no way to know for sure, but when he ran off alone with someone like _you_ the first chance he got.. I got the hint after a couple of days.”

Nora paused. “Was there someone that you duped on accident?”

  
Scribe Haylen took a deep breath in through her nose. “Something like that. Before me, he was with Tara Astlin, but their relationship was numbered regardless. Back in the Capital Wasteland, she got her second strike fraternizing. She dumped him and signed up for Brandis’ recon team to get herself out of hot water.”

Nora brought her hands up to cover her mouth, unable to hide her shock. “Knight Tara Astlin?”

  
Haylen closed her eyes. “We volunteered for the next recon squad to go looking for her, but when we were starting to think we would never find them, Danse was convinced he might’ve found the Institute. I.. guess that was more important. He told me you found the body.”

She rubbed her arm. “I know it probably doesn't help, but she was gone long before you guys ever made it to the Commonwealth. I had no idea, he didn't even give me the slightest impression he cared for her. All he said was.. she should’ve been wearing her power armor-and covered her with a sheet.”

The redhead turned to her. “Was he wearing his power armor?”

Nora shook her head. “Of course.”

Scribe Haylen spoke again. “Danse uses his armor to protect himself both physically and mentally. He keeps his emotions in, and everything else out. He spent two years hiding his feelings for Astlin from the Brotherhood, I’m not surprised he can hide his grief for her behind a helmet. It’s for the best that he didn’t have to explain his relationship with her, it might’ve broken his morale.”

Nora stood, distressed. “He came here to save her, lost four men to the cause, and not only found her body, but found out after he failed to save her that he wasn’t human. How could the Brotherhood be so unforgiving of his circumstance?”

  
Haylen gave a weak smile. “I’m glad you see it that way. If I know anybody with a shred of humanity, it’s Gabriel Danse.” She stood up and walked by Nora, coming between her and the door. “I’m not asking you to wait for him. I’m asking you not to hate him when he comes back, because I promise he will.”  
  
She fumbled with the holotags around her neck.  
“I can’t hate him. He means more to me than I would like to admit. I’ve spent so much time relying on his guidance, I don’t know if I can even fend for myself anymore.”

  
Scribe Haylen grabbed the door handle but stopped. “Forgive me if I’m overstepping my boundaries here, but isn’t that exactly how you felt when your husband died? And then you killed a hundred synths and a cybernetically enhanced mercenary to avenge him and find your son.  
You’re not helpless, Paladin. And you don’t need Danse to survive in the Commonwealth. He would tell you the same thing.”

  
Nora slowly turned her head to the doorway. “Do you think I need the Brotherhood?”

Haylen opened the door, and looked around before turning back to her. “You don’t need anybody, it doesn't matter what I think.”

  
Nora took it as a compliment and smiled. “Hey Haylen, before you head out of here, would it be strange if I asked what your name is?”

  
“It’s Lydia.” She laughed, before closing the door behind her.

  
  
She picked up the holotags hanging from her neck again. “Gabriel Danse. Born February 15, 2262.” She learned more about him from his stuff than she had ever learned from him.

She had finally decided that if she was going to take out the Institute, she was going to do it with the Minutemen.


	7. Deinstitutionalized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora claims The Castle for the Minutemen, and sets up shop rebuilding the Commonwealth without the help of the Brotherhood of Steel. Upon return to the Institute, they inform her that they wish to cut ties due to her radical beliefs about synths as well as her current albeit hypocritical ties to the Brotherhood. As a result of this ostracism, MacCready convinces her to bite the bullet and speak to Maxson as well.

Nora arrived at Sanctuary Hills at sunset, exiting Paladin Danse's power armor before running towards the bridge.

“Oh Mister Garvey!” She shouted with a big smile on her face.  
  
He spotted her blue vault suit and walked over to meet her in the middle of the bridge. “I think the Brotherhood of Steel can kiss their best asset goodbye, Preston. We should be the ones to take out the Institute.”  
  
Garvey’s eyes grew wide with excitement. “You’re gonna like what Sturges found, then. But first, I wanted to run something by you, something big. I think we should take back a pillar of the Minutemen to show the Commonwealth that we mean business. We need to retake The Castle.”  
  
She raised an eyebrow. “Sounds dangerous, I’m in. Let me come back with some reinforcements-”  
Preston interrupted her, “Meet me at Fort Independence with those reinforcements, we don’t have time to be standing around.”  
  
She hopped in place to get a running start. “You got it Mister Garvey, I’ll see you there!”  
  
  
She hurried to Goodneighbor, and a very upset looking MacCready greeted her in the Third Rail.  
“I’ve been here for ten days, where the hell have you been?”

  
Nora looked away, burying her face in her scarf. “I've been around, but Danse is gone.”

RJ’s eyes grew wide with anger. “Gone, as in dead?” He shouted.

“No. Gone as in he ran away.” She nearly whispered.

She dug in her bag and handed MacCready the note that Danse left.

  
“That idiot. What are you gonna do?”

  
She put her hands on her temples before saying, “What am I supposed to do? He left without me. I’m gonna get on with my life while he’s gone, I guess.”

RJ’s eyes fell to the chunky boots on her feet. “I can drink to that. Toast?” He filled a shot glass with tequila and handed it to her.

  
She took it gingerly, and her voice grew stern. “In the meantime, I’m gonna be retaking The Castle in the east, and I didn’t want to leave you out of any glorified battles.”

  
  
He shrugged. “I suppose I can't be so angry about being left on hold. This run’s free of charge, eh sunshine?”

  
Was he taking pity on her? She shot him a sideways glance before clinking glasses with him and slamming her shot glass on the cocktail table, dumping the sour drink into her mouth.

Her face wound into a scowl, and he couldn’t help but leer at her mildness.

  
When she was done fanning her mouth, she met his eye. “So now that I’ve got you in a fighting kinda mood, you ready to charge this castle, Captain?”

Nora winked at him. “It’s General, not Captain. We gotta head over to Diamond City first to pick up my sleepover buddies.”

  
  
RJ chuckled, and they departed from Goodneighbor once more. Nora knocked on Nick Valentine’s door before entering, surprised to find Piper there as well. 

  
“Hey there Blue, what’s crackin’?” She beamed at the two in the doorway.  
  
“Well I was here to invite Nick to my castle cleaning party, but if you’re any use with a gun you’re welcome to come as well.”

Piper made a face and pulled the 10mm pistol from her jacket. “You could say that.”

  
Nick eyed over them before he changed the subject. “Where’s your big metal shadow?”

Her small smile slipped away while she thought about the question. “The Brotherhood found out he was a synth, and he deserted.”

They all froze, but after a moment Nick spoke. “I can’t imagine how hard he is taking this.”

  
Nora changed the subject again. “Do you want to help me take the castle or not?”  
  
  
Nick and Piper paused before agreeing, but Nora could sense their unease.

“I’m sorry, I’m not going to waste any more time on someone who is going to run away from all of their problems.”

  
MacCready shifted uncomfortably at her saying such hurtful things about Danse. He must have fucked her over big time before he left.

 

They took off on their way to the castle, meeting Garvey in the Diner outside. Within the hour, they had exterminated most of the mirelurks inside.

After finishing off some hatchlings, MacCready grabbed the collar of his duster, itching at the nape of his neck. “Man I really don’t like this feeling I have.”

  
Nora looked over to him, pushing the butt of his rifle into the nest. “Is everything okay Bobby?”

  
He stood straight up, looking over the edge of the castle. The only thing beyond his end of the fortress was the sea. Before he had the chance to answer, the ground began to quake beneath them. He balanced himself on the shaking bricks, concentrating on a route to the west entrance of the castle. “Nora we have to run! It’s a queen!”

A Leviathan of a beast rose from the depths, and without thinking she screamed, “MacCready! Get out of there!”

She leapt over the edge of the castle, rolling into the courtyard and grabbing the Fat Man she left there, heaving it above her frame and firing a mini nuke at the monster.

  
RJ ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He slid down the rubble on the west end, following Nora’s lead and sprinting for the missile launcher.

He struggled to dodge the monster while aiming the awkward weapon, backing up and propelling a missile at the beast. The queen recoiled before firing an onslaught of acid directly at Nora. She zigzagged backwards, but stumbled over RJ as he loaded another missile.

  
“Watch where you’re going!” He snapped at her, while pulling at him to bring herself back up.

  
They both watched in slow motion as an additional tiny stream of acid flew from the queen. It scorched the earth of the courtyard, and Nora’s leg up to her shin.

She wailed in agony and MacCready grabbed the large gun she dropped, firing the last mini nuke into the mirelurk queen. With a boom and a crash, she collapsed into the Atlantic.

Tears streamed down Nora’s face, occluding her vision as she searched for a stimpak. She felt one in the bottom of her bag, and slammed it into her thigh while pushing the plunger.  
  
Piper darted from her cover and picked up the mangled leg, assessing Nora’s injury. “What the hell were you thinking, Blue? Fighting a mirelurk queen alone?”

RJ ran to help Piper, lifting Nora’s head. “Yelling at her isn’t going to change anything. It’s not like you’re going to pull a stunt like that again, right rookie?” He gently slapped her cheek. “You need to stay awake until the pain goes away. How do you feel?”

The pain inhibitors coursed their way through her system, and she smiled dopily. “Feeling pretty sore you stole my kill, Bobby.”

He laughed weakly. “I sure did. Let’s take her to the General’s quarters until she can stand on this leg.” 

 

They spent the next day preparing The Castle for settlers, building beds and turrets while Piper planted food and MacCready salvaged a water purifier. Nick didn’t have a lot of knowledge on settlement building, so he just cleaned out mirelurk remains while the other three worked.    
  
Preston Garvey came back, a tiny pine tree over his shoulder. “I figured that I could contribute to this settlement, it being Christmas Eve and all.” He set the tree down in the courtyard, propping it up against a corner.    
  
Nora hugged him tightly. “Merry Christmas, Preston. Thank you.”  
  
He laughed, returning her embrace. “Never took you for a hugger, General.”  
  
She shrugged. “I’m usually not in a good enough mood for it." She smiled. “I'm still pretty doped up."   
  
  
  
  
The year 2288 came, with not so much as a letter from Danse. It took twice as long to travel anywhere thanks to the snow, so Nora went to the Institute to visit Shaun. He had terminal cancer, and not long to live, not to mention he wasn’t making a lot of sense half the time he was talking to her.

While he was taking a nap, Nora went through his terminal, specifically his database of missing and runaway synths. M7-97 was the only gen-3 synth listed as “missing” and not “runaway”, the rest being mostly gen-1 synths. But that was all it told her.

  
She heard a voice clearing behind her, and she sat face to face with Alana Secord. “Hello, Mrs. Klain. Have you taken an interest in Synth Retention?”  
  
Nora laughed with her best poker face. “As a matter of fact, I have. Why is this gen-3 unit designated as missing, if you don’t mind me asking?”  
  
Alana crossed her arms. “Be aware that I do mind, but if you must know, that specific unit would have been physically incapable of running away even if he had the impulse.”

Nora scoffed internally, as he had apparently done nothing else. “Why would it be that way?”  
  
Dr. Secord chuckled arrogantly. “We can’t have all of our coursers running off, too.”  
 

It took everything in Nora not to react, the Institute would surely want to recover something as valuable as him. “Hm. Intriguing. Do you think he’s dead?”  
  
“If he had died his name would automatically transfer to the deceased synth list, like Z2-47.” She replied robotically.  
  
Nora queried, “Z2-47?”

Secord put her hands on her hips. “The courser you killed to get here.” She took control of the terminal and clicked over to the master list of coursers. “Coursers are built with much more care than other synths. We need to know if they’ve been disabled so valuable Institute technology doesn’t get into the hands of the Railroad, which is where I believe the specific unit you were questioning me about was highjacked.”  
  
Nora figured that this was a better time than any to back off. “Unless you’re asking for a favor, I believe we both have better business to attend to.”  
  
Alana scoffed. “Absolutely not. It would be far too much trouble to recover a mind-wiped courser and reprogram him. I custom built that unit with my own two hands, and we already know that he’s capable of taking down another courser, thanks to you.”  
  
Nora pulled her hands into her lap to hide how nervous she was getting.  
  
“The Institute has eyes everywhere Mrs. Klain, Especially in Diamond City. We were willing to overlook the incidents in which you weren’t aware of his true nature, the other however.. will be harder to ignore. I must admit that I’m flattered that you were so well fooled by my handiwork. Father does not wish for the unit to be recovered, and you’ll be pleased to hear that he’s finally been decommissioned, since you’ve taken such a liking to him.” She laughed to herself as she pranced down the stairs.  
  
  
Shaun strode back into the room, and sat with his mother. “I wanted to tell you about his identity the last time you were here, but the timing wasn’t right. He had just returned to the Commonwealth after a 5 year hiatus, and we still were assessing his reprogrammability." He looked up to her wide eyes and sighed. "Would you like to see his file?” Father rolled his chair over next to Nora’s, and brought back up the courser database.

She read through all of it. His synth component was activated on February 15th, 2262 and he was decommissioned on November 20th, 2287. “It says here that he’s only been active for sixteen years, but his component has been active for twenty-five. That’s quite the gap.”

He turned off the terminal and scratched his beard. “We pick our coursers out of our most promising synths, and then upgrade them as they finish construction. This particular synth was a pet project of Dr. Secord’s. She built him from scratch, starting with the synth component. It took her two years. Once we had run some diagnostics, we realized that he was quite the specimen. The minute she heard the word ‘courser’ she almost gave up on the unit. She didn’t want one of her creations to be a synth killer, so a near-finished product sat in storage for a whopping six years before she spent another year finishing his dermal shell. After he was activated, she almost started taking pride in building coursers. She made this transformation because someone helped her to realize that these synths are not people, but machines.”  

She realized that he planned on lecturing her. “Shaun. I want you to know that what happened was because-”

He held up a hand and cut her off. “I’m well aware that my father was having an affair, and that you were on the verge of divorce when the bombs fell. I’m not hurt that you would engage in sexual intercourse with what you perceived to be another man so closely following his death, although I will acknowledge that you did avenge him first.

I am hurt, however at the idea that you would continue such a disgraceful fling after discovering that M7-97 was a synth. I don’t like keeping secrets from my people, secrets like my mother sleeping with a courser because she doesn’t know any better. On top of that, you’ve stolen an experimental FEV cure, and convinced Dr. Madison Li to rejoin the Brotherhood of Steel. I’d like you to leave as soon as possible. I’m sorry, mother.” He couldn’t even look at her he was filled with so much contempt.

She stood up, shocked. “I.. I understand. Goodbye Shaun.”

She walked out to the relay platform and waited to be beamed outside of the CIT ruins.  
“Fucking snow.” she said as she wrapped her arms around herself and made the long tread to the castle.

MacCready was waiting outside the front gate, lighting a cigarette and keeping watch. He watched the blue figure peak up over the white and black that covered the landscape. “Teleported in and walking back.. I’d say that went well.” He said, shaking the match in his hand before dropping it into the snow. “What’d you say to rile him up?”

Nora sighed. “Well in terms of actual speaking, the only part he didn’t like was when I took his chief Advanced Systems scientist back to the Brotherhood of Steel. The rest of my banishment was due to me stealing the top secret FEV cure for Virgil, oh and having sex with Danse after finding out he was a synth.”

MacCready whistled. “That’ll do it.” He chuckled.

 

She turned to him with a serious look on her face. “Danse was a courser. One of his primary engineers told me abandonment was against his very programming.”  
  
RJ sighed. “Yikes. Someone should really tell him that.” He said before nudging her arm. “Hey kid. He’ll come back, just give him some time.”   
  
Tears quietly escaped her as her lips curled. “Yeah, if he doesn’t get killed first.”

MacCready turned to ash his cigarette, but before he turned back Nora was already down the stone steps and headed for her room.

  
At the end of his shift, Bobby came to give her some company. “I knew you’d leave the door unlocked for me.”  
  
She was lying there in bed, holding her Pip-boy in one hand and scrolling through it with the other.  
  
The bed shifted from him crawling into it beside her, and she looked up from the purple screen. “I’m sorry you got banned from seeing your son, especially since he’s dying and all.”  
  
She made a face of discontent. “It’s okay. At least it’s actually going to be a challenge for me to kill him now.” She sighed. “Speaking of ill children, have you heard anything from Duncan?”  
  
  
The Pip-Boy was yanked out of her hands. “Even if I did, it’s gonna be a couple months at least before I can afford to head back out to the Capital Wasteland.”  
  
She looked at her empty hands and up to him. “Snatching is rude. How much do you need?”  
  
He cocked his head, scrolling through the screen. “About five g’s. I’m close though, so don’t worry about it. I’ve got even more buried out there.”  
  
Nora crawled over to her bedside table, picking up her ‘Zeta Invaders’ holotape and handing it to him.  
  
“How close?” She asked, hitting the ‘eject’ button.  
  
“Forty-two, but you need to worry about your whole problem with the Brotherhood, not making caps because I’m sitting around instead of doing my job.” RJ waited for the game to load, and started turning the dial back and forth, firing at the invaders. “Neat.”  
  
  
Nora spoke calmly, not trying to break his concentration. “You’re doing a job for me too, and I feel like I don’t pay you nearly enough for everything you do around here.”  
  
He made a buzzing noise with his mouth. “Ehhrr! Wrong! You pay me far too much for everything I do around here. You saved my son’s life, and I feel like I’m taking your money and helping you get absolutely nowhere.”  
  
  
A look over his shoulder made her stifle laughter at how badly he was doing. “My problems can wait, you’ve got an actual little boy waiting for you. I could go with you to the Capital Wasteland, you know.”  
  
He smiled at the thought of bringing her with him. “Not that I would let you. I don’t even want Duncan with me when I come back here, but that’s not really an option. It’s too dangerous, we have to be fast. You’re just.. not that fast.”  
  
Nora turned her head, her face right inside his periphery. “Let me? Are you saying you’re scared I’m gonna get hurt?”  
  
He got flustered and died. “What’s wrong with that? If you die, I go back to spending all my free time at The Third Rail. This place is nice, and you being around is a decent perk.”  
  
  
“So let’s say I get faster. Then can I go?” She pried.  
  
He tossed the Pip-Boy down on the comforter, rubbing his face. “You’ve got no business leaving the Commonwealth until you blow up the Institute, and you sure as hell can’t walk into Brotherhood country out in the Capital as it stands. It’s a number of factors.”  
  
She gently picked up the device, setting it on her nightstand and letting her hair out of its bun. “Well, I’m already out of the Institute for good. May as well get the Brotherhood out of the way next.” She said sarcastically.  
  
MacCready rolled his eyes at her. “You’re lucky getting banned from the Institute went so well, because getting kicked out of the Brotherhood is not going to go smoothly. That I can promise you.”  
  
  
He laid back on the bed, and Nora rocked back and rested her head on his tummy. “And what do you know about the Brotherhood?”  
  
Her head bounced as he chuckled. “I know that they don’t mess around when it comes to getting what they want, and they seem pretty dead set on keeping you.”  
  
She brought her hands behind her head, mocking RJ’s relaxed pose. “If you’re worried about the Brotherhood not playing nice, I’ll just go up there tomorrow and tell them I’m out. Do you think I should bring Dogmeat?”

“If you think they won’t open fire on you for deserting.” He jabbed back. "I'm not kidding, Nora."  
  
She rolled over, her elbows on his chest. “What do you suggest I do, then?”

  
A groan left him as her bony elbows jabbed him in the upper ribs, and he rolled her into an inferior position. “Exactly that. You’re gonna have to tell Napoleon you’re not buying his crap.”

She slipped her wrist out of his grip and pinched his cheek. “Just because he’s young doesn’t mean he’s little. He’s kinda scary up close, actually.”

“I never said Maxson _wasn’t_ scary, he was killing deathclaws while I was literally living in a cave. What I said was you needed to be straight with him. The longer you wait, the worse the consequences are going to be.” He leaned in, and she tried to ignore how nice he smelled, even with vodka on his breath.

  
She pulled his hat off of his head, holding it far out of his reach as he tried to take it back.  
“I guarantee I’m far more afraid of the Brotherhood than you are, I’m just a better liar than you. If things don’t go my way tomorrow, I still know I tried. You can’t stress yourself out so much over my problems.”

They wrestled over the cap until MacCready was out of breath, crawling under the blankets and going to bed a sore loser.  
  
  
The next morning, he lifted the pillow off of his face while she dug around her room looking for something.  
  
“Is that lipstick?” He asked.  
  
Nora looked in the mirror, tugging baby hairs out of the back of her hairstyle. “Elder Maxson is a powerful young man, but still a man. People tend to trust others more often when they’re physically attractive, it's psychology.”

  
RJ sat straight up “Whoa, whoa, whoa, no way! What if that doesn’t go the way you think it is? He can make one of his own disappear. Do you know what men like him want to do to you?”  
  
Nora cocked her head at him. “Would you care to enlighten me?”  
  
He watched her fix her vault suit, slipping the fabric higher up on her thighs in a more flattering shape.  
“I honestly can’t believe the Brotherhood has left you in one piece this long.”  
  
She looked up at him, catching him gawking at her shamelessly. “You heard me. Even a stiff like Danse was willing to give up his highballer reputation for a chance with you. You think he’s the only one?”  
  
In her reflection she caught his gaze again, trying to shake the mutual feeling that she was getting ready to walk into a trap. “I think you’re being paranoid.”  
  
He picked up a teddy bear and hurled it at her. “I think you’re being stupid!”  
  
The stuffed animal hit the vanity, and she glared at him before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind her.   
  
  
  
After a moment of hesitation, he was out of bed and jogging after her. "Nora, come back! I'm sorry for throwing the damn bear at you. I don't want our last words to be a fight." 

  
He watched the muscles in the back of her legs as she stopped on a dime. Expectantly, she turned around with her arms crossed. "This better be good, Bobby." 

The smile creeped up in the corners of her mouth as he went all puppy dog eyes. He pulled her into a hug, as Piper gagged in the background. "You're not stupid, I just think your plan is dangerous. You should let me go with you, I can handle myself if they open fire."

"Not that I would let you. Nice try though, RJ." She pulled out of his hug and headed back to her room to finish gathering anything she may need. 

Piper scoffed at him being turned down once again, and he turned to face her in the window sill. "Whatever, I'm still her favorite." 


End file.
